When Dawn Staley reasoned why she remembers 1 particular win vs Geno Auriemma’s UConn fondly

Dawn Staley looked back at the most monumental win of her coaching career with the South Carolina Gamecocks on Bleacher Reports' "Taylor Rooks X" episode released in March 2023. Staley immediately mentioned beating 11-time NCAA champion Geno Auriemma's UConn Huskies at the Colonial Life Arena in 2020.

Staley won the NCAA championship in 2022, the biggest feat in college basketball. However, she claimed that the win against the Huskies acted as a morale booster for the program, allowing the Gamecocks to believe in themselves and lift the national trophy.

"I would say probably beating UConn for the first time here in our building in 2020," Staley said (15:27).

"Because so many so many other monumental wins came after that, so it kind of opened the door for us being able to just shake that off of them. I always describe it as this UConn beating our heads in year after year after year after year. So, that allowed us to win here and also to win last year in the national championship game."

The Huskies visited the Colonial Life Arena on Feb. 10, 2020 behind a 20-2 season run. Gamecocks' Aliyah Boston hit a 3-pointer off an assist by Mikiah Herbert Harrigan with 5:46 left in the first quarter to give South Carolina a 5-2 lead.

Dawn Staley's crew did not look back throughout the contest, maintain a minimum of 8-point differential for a 70-52 win.

When Dawn Staley highlighted her healthy competition with Geno Auriemma

As Taylor Rooks asked the Gameocks coach to describe her relationship with the winningest coach in NCAA basketball history, she highlighted a of sense of mutual respect and competition.

Dawn Staley also revealed that she secretly learnt different aspects of coaching from Geno Auriemma while assisting under him for the 2016 Olympics.

"As far as my relationship with with Gino, I respect Gino, I coached under him in the 2016 Olympic games," she said (16:52).

"I watched him a lot, he probably didn't know I was watching him, but I was watching and learning. Just to see how he operates and then I just respect him. There's, I think, a mutual respect for each other. We don't like losing and we don't like losing to each other."

Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley led the women’s Team USA roster to its sixth-straight gold medal in the Olympics held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. USA miantin an undefeated run to beat Spain in the medal round.

It was Auriemma's second gold as the national program’s head coach and Staley’s second as an assistant. Staley won 10 gold medals as a Team USA player and seven medals as its head coach.