Dawn Staley gets 100% real on rivalry with Geno Auriemma, UConn over the years: "Don't wanna give anyone the psychological advantage"

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley spoke about her rivalry with UConn coach Geno Auriemma over the years and if she relished the challenge. Including Sunday's national championship game, both coaches have met 15 times and Auriemma won 10 times, but Staley closed the gap in the last five years, going 5-3 in the past eight games.

The three-time national champion coach talked about the challenge of keeping up with a program as successful as UConn. Since they first faced each other as South Carolina's coach in 2008, she talked about being confident enough to not treat Auriemma and the Huskies differently, regardless of the result.

"I try to shake your hand the same way," Staley said in the postgame press conference after her team's 82-59 loss to UConn at the NCAA Championship finals. "I'm going look in your eyes the same way because I know that at some point, we're gonna win and I don't want to I don't want to give anybody a psychological advantage," Staley said (Timestamp 28:10).

Staley said she felt UConn had the better team and praised them for ensuring they delivered on the expectations. The Huskies fought South Carolina twice in the regular season and the national championship and won by an average of 26 points.

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Geno Auriemma, Dawn Staley push for standalone TV deal for women's college basketball

The two coaches in this year's women's college basketball title game have advocated for equality in the sport since they became coaches in the NCAA. And now, UConn's Geno Auriemma and South Carolina's Dawn Staley wanted the league to cut a separate television rights deal for women's basketball.

In January 2024, the NCAA signed an eight-year, $920 million deal with ESPN to broadcast 40 championships during that period. Women's basketball had the clout in this deal, with about 56.5% of the contract belonging to them.

However, the two coaches, who had combined for 15 national titles, wanted more — they wanted to have a standalone coverage deal for women's hoops.

"For years and years and years we’ve been packaged with all the other Olympic sports, so to speak, in one big chunk. Can we completely separate ourselves and say: What are we worth to you?" Auriemma said, ahead of the NCAA final on Sunday(per Front Office Sports).

Under this new deal, conferences will be awarded with monetary rewards called "units" of around $15 million this season. It is set to hit $25 million by 2027.

Staley, who was a basketball icon in Virginia before venturing into the WNBA and coaching the South Carolina Gamecocks, echoed Auriemma's statement.

“We need our own television deal so we can understand what our worth is,” Staley said.

The veteran coach also delivered an indirect challenge to the new Women’s Basketball Coaches Association president, Jose Fernandez, to come up with such a deal for the welfare of women's basketball in general.