Geno Auriemma felt 'like a dumbass' after Final Four blowup with Dawn Staley, not worried about impacts to legacy

Geno Auriemma was very harsh on himself as he walked into the locker room after their Final Four loss to South Carolina.

It wasn’t the loss that was dominating the moment, though. Instead, it was his interaction and blowup with South Carolina coach Dawn Staley.

“When I walked in the locker room afterward, the coaches were shaking their heads, ‘You couldn’t hold it in for five more second?’” Auriemma said on Monday, via the Hartford Courant.

“And you feel like a dumbass for the way it played out. We’re all human and we all do dumb [stuff].”

Auriemma had to be physically pulled away from Staley in the final seconds of the Huskies’ 62-48 loss to the Gamecocks in the Final Four. The two got into it, and Auriemma ended up walking off the court on his own without shaking the Gamecocks’ hands.

The incident apparently stemmed from Staley not shaking Auriemma’s hand and meeting him before the contest, though ESPN showed footage in the moment of the two doing just that.

Auriemma stood by his behavior in the moment, saying that he “just told the truth.” He eventually issued a statement, but did not name Staley, and then addressed it again days later. He said the two had spoken about the incident, he apologized to her, and agreed to move on.

“I’ve lost more games in the Final Four than any coach in history. But Friday I lost something more important,” he wrote, in part. “I lost myself.”