‘I Will Beat Geno’s A**!’: On Dawn Staley, Black…
Source: C. Morgan Engel / Getty
The backlash following UConn coach Geno Auriemma’s outburst at South Carolina coach Dawn Staley in the closing seconds of their national semifinal matchup on Friday night time has drawn a substantial quantity of media consideration and assist from followers of each groups. Coach Auriemma sparked the heated trade by allegedly accusing Coach Staley of not shaking his hand before the game, an accusation refuted by a video aired by ESPN that exhibits the two exchanging handshakes.
As Staley walked away from Auriemma, she yelled, “I will beat Geno’s ass,” a line that has since gone viral with not less than one sports activities bar including the phrase to its marquee.
In an interview on Saturday, one in all Coach Auriemma’s former star gamers, retired WNBA participant Diana Taurasi, downplayed the trade between the rival coaches, saying it was nothing more than “two people competing at the highest level that have a tremendous amount of respect for each other.”
But, for many Black women, Auriemma’s habits displays a well-known dynamic many of us have encountered in the office the place regardless of how arduous we work, we still face discrimination and disrespect from white colleagues.
Many of us are taught before we set foot in our first workplace jobs that to be a Black girl in the office means we’ve got to work twice as arduous to be twice nearly as good, only to get half as far.
According to a 2020 examine launched by Lean In and McKinsey and Company, Black women “experience a wider range of microaggressions” and are “more likely to have their judgment questioned in their area of expertise and to be asked to provide additional evidence of their competence.”
As a longtime newsroom chief who has occupied top high level editorial positions at some of the top news organizations in the nation, I’ve skilled this more occasions than I can rely. I’ve had my editorial judgment questioned in methods and with a level of veracity my white friends don’t experience. I’ve never been accused of not shaking somebody’s hand before a game, however I’ve skilled managers dwelling on trivia unrelated to my work and calling into query my private ethics and professionalism.
Over the past a number of a long time, Coach Dawn Staley has emerged as a legendary determine in women’s basketball who has shown she’s keen to work twice as arduous.
The four-time U.S. Olympic gold medal winner (three as a participant and one as head coach in 2021) performed seven seasons in the WNBA, and for most of those seasons, she concurrently coached Temple University’s women’s basketball team.
In 2008, Staley joined the University of South Carolina Gamecocks as head coach, and he or she constructed the program into the powerhouse it’s today. During her tenure, the Gamecocks received their first national championship in 2017, adopted by two more championship wins in 2022 and 2024.
Staley’s successes have earned her the distinctive distinction of being the only particular person to win the prestigious Naismith Award as each a participant and a coach. Twice nearly as good, certainly.
What makes Auriemma’s accusations all the more appalling is that Staley has also confirmed to be twice as type behind the scenes. She’s earned a repute for exhibiting compassion and care that goes past what might fairly be labeled nearly as good teaching or good sportsmanship.
After the Gamecocks defeated the Southern University women’s basketball team at the start of this yr’s March Madness tournament, she gifted the Southern University gamers with Louis Vuitton fragrance. When requested by a reporter what prompted her providing, she explained that it was a small gesture for the gamers after a few the younger women had complimented her and requested her what scent she was sporting.
Staley is also identified for greeting the lengthy line of people seated courtside in the media row, one thing she did previous to the start of Friday’s UConn game.
When reporters requested Auriemma to touch upon what had occurred in the final seconds of that game, he stood by his phrases and actions and withheld an apology for his habits. He didn’t really feel it was warranted.
While Auriemma was standing his floor, Staley continued to point out up as she always has. During the UCLA v. Texas matchup that adopted her team’s win, she was seen in the stands graciously posing for footage and signing autographs for followers.
In an interview early Saturday, Auriemma was requested by a reporter if he had a private relationship with Staley, and he said “Nah, not really. We don’t have a lot in common.” While Auriemma went on to say he revered the work Staley had executed to build the Gamecocks basketball program into the strong program it’s today, his dismissiveness about whether or not the two had a private connection was at best peculiar and at worst pointless.
It is well-known that school basketball coaches spend a substantial quantity of their private time considering, speaking, and obsessing over basketball. As coaches of elite groups, Auriemma and Staley compete for the same titles and live the same year-round grind and high stress that only a handful of equally located coaches can relate to and perceive.
While I don’t count on rival coaches to be best mates, Auriemma might have chosen not to answer that a part of the query and easily shared how a lot respect he has for Staley as a coach. After all, Auriemma is a seasoned coach and well-versed in learn how to maneuver robust questions from reporters. He knew better.
The framing Auriemma selected, coming from a white coach about a Black girl coach, echoes a well-known sample for Black people in the office. We are subjected to offhanded remarks, and our excellence is handled as a separate fairly than shared experience, even when the work, stress, and stakes that go into reaching success are just about an identical.
According to Lean In’s 2025 annual report on Women in the Workplace, these distinctive stressors for Black women in the office are taking a toll on our health. The researchers famous that “almost 8 in 10 senior-level Black women have been frequently burned out in the past year, and even more are concerned about their job security– more than other senior leaders.” This, at a time when corporations are more and more seeing variety and DEI as a legal responsibility, and labor data present that Black women are going through larger charges of unemployment when in comparison with the common inhabitants. More than 300,000 Black women grew to become newly unemployed in 2025, a pointy rise.
After calls for for Auriemma to apologize reached a fever pitch, on Saturday afternoon, UConn launched an announcement from Coach Auriemma that read partially, “There’s no excuse for how I handled the end of the game vs. South Carolina. It’s unlike what I do and what our standard is here at Connecticut.” He then supplied a broad apology to “the staff and the team at South Carolina,” saying his response was “uncalled for.”
Missing from Auriemma’s apology was any direct point out of Staley, one thing that a broad cross-section of followers, celebrities, and sports activities fans took issue with on social media. Several demanded that he issue another assertion and apologize to Staley straight. His assertion as soon as again detracts from Staley and her team’s success.
As the late Toni Morrison as soon as explained:
“The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing.”
For Geno Auriemma, on Friday night time, that “one more thing” was his accusation that Coach Staley missed a pre-game handshake. That unwieldy accusation prompted the press and followers alike to go on the hunt and supply up video footage that would possibly present whether or not she missed one or each customary pre-game handshakes. On Saturday, that “one more thing” was a lackluster assertion from Auriemma when Staley deserved a real (and direct) apology.
What this “one more thing” distracted from was the actuality that Dawn Staley outcoached him and her team outplayed his. He robbed Staley and her team of the ordinary celebratory cheers and hugs at the end of a double-digit win. His habits left no area to offer the Gamecocks credit score for his or her win against a team that had gone undefeated for 54 games before South Carolina single-handedly snapped their successful streak and ended their goals of back-to-back championship wins.
He also distracted from the ordinary post-game analysis of what would have absolutely included data illustrating the Gamecocks weren’t only better ready however the better team. The analysis would have included praising the stellar protection performed by Gamecocks’ senior Raven Johnson, who’s positioned to be a first round decide in the upcoming WNBA draft.
As the viewership and fan base of women’s basketball continue to increase, and with Morrison’s phrases in thoughts, the point is that we must always not fall into the behavior of litigating every second or handshake, however to return to what this is absolutely about.
Sunday, a championship game is going on between the South Carolina Gamecocks and the UCLA Bruins. This game shall be coached by two phenomenal women and the gamers who take the court docket are all members of primary seeded groups. They are playing at the highest level of a sport that has never been more seen, more competitive or more consultant of its followers and this nation.
So, as I sit down and watch the two groups duke it out for a championship ring, I shall be holding give attention to the place it belongs, on the game, and the people on and off the court docket who continue to raise it. Oh, and GOOOOO Gamecocks!
Now somebody please run me one in all those “I will beat Geno’s ass” t-shirts. Whether the Gamecocks win or lose, I’m sporting it by next season.
The submit ‘I Will Beat Geno’s A**!’: On Dawn Staley, Black Women, And Disrespect In The Workplace appeared first on Bossip.
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