Auriemma: Criticism was at refs, not players

Huskies coach responds to Staley’s recent comments

Following the Uconn women’s basketball game at Marquette on Wednesday, head coach Geno Auriemma clarified comments made after the Huskies’ 81-77 loss to No. 1 South Carolina that have caused quite the stir.

Auriemma had remarked that Uconn wing Lou Lopez Sénéchal had bruises on her body and slammed how the physical top-five matchup was officiated. Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley responded on her radio show Tuesday by saying when her team has success, “we’re called something other than players that are locked in.”

The comments made by Auriemma were similar to ones he’s made regarding officiating and Lopez Sénéchal after other games this season. He reiterated that the comments were aimed at officials while pointing out that he’s made similar ones repeatedly throughout his coaching career following Uconn’s 58-52 loss in Milwaukee.

“I don’t know whether Dawn was referring to me specifically or whether this has been happening to her team for quite some time now,” Auriemma said. “If people have been paying attention seriously, I’ve been making that statement for 20 some years, since Diana was playing for us. And I said the exact same thing after the Villanova game, the exact same thing after — anybody that was paying attention, ask Holly Rowe what I said at halftime of the Tennessee game. I said it after the Providence game. And in each one of those instances, everything I said was directed squarely at the officials.”

After the Providence game, Auriemma remarked that Lopez Sénéchal was “getting the Diana Taurasi treatment out there,” in reference to how she was being fouled without calls.

“It’s just appalling what teams do to her now,” Auriemma said after the South Carolina game. “It’s not basketball anymore. I don’t know what it is, but it’s not basketball.”

Staley responded by defending her players on her call-in radio show.

“They play the right way and approach it the right way whether they win or lose,” Staley said. “We don’t denounce anybody’s play. They are always uplifting the game of women’s basketball and when we were getting our heads beat in by Uconn for all those years, I said nothing.”

“We’ve been called so many things and I’m

sick of it. I’m sick of it because I coach some of the best human beings the game has ever had.”

Auriemma clarified that his comments were directed at the officials, not the South Carolina players.

“You have a right to coach your team any way you want. I have enough trouble coaching my own team. But I can have a say in how officials call the game,” Auriemma said. “And if rules are supposed to be the rules as they’re interpreted to me, then they’ve got to be called according to the rules. If I’m never allowed to question an official about their calls and criticize them for the way they officiate a game without someone thinking I’m casting [aspersions] toward their team, that’s just asinine. And if you’ve been paying attention, I’ve been saying it for 20 years.”