Geno Auriemma makes his feelings known on Dawn Staley & Co. after UConn stuns South Carolina

The UConn Huskies under coach Geno Auriemma blew out reigning national champions, coach Dawn Staley's South Carolina Gamecocks 87-58 at the Colonial Life Arena on Sunday evening. The win snapped a 71-game winning run by the Gamecocks at home.

The victory stretched the legendary Auriemma's record versus Staley to 9-5. During his postgame news conference, the UConn coach congratulated his Gamecocks counterpart for the work she has done building South Carolina into an elite basketball school.

“I don’t want to leave here without saying that coming down here is really, really, really hard. It didn’t used to be a long time ago, and I think they made it really special and really hard to play here," Geno Auriemma said.

"The crowd supports the program. They’re fantastic. I remember the very first time we come down here, they had no idea how to behave. They’ve never seen anything like this, act like this.

"So, there’s a knowledgeable fan base, and it’s fun to play in this environment. I just wanted to say congrats to school and the community. (It’s) great this happened in more places, but it’s a testament to all the people down here. Dawn and her staff and what they built. It’s really cool. I really, I really enjoy it. So, congratulations to everybody down here."

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Geno Auriemma reveals keys to UConn's dominant win

UConn dominated against the South Carolina Gamecocks from start to finish, with Huskies star Azzi Fudd following up her career night against the St. John's Red Storm on Wednesday by tallying 28.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists.

During his postgame news conference, Geno Auriemma revealed the keys to his team's dominant win.

“I said our rebounding and transition defense are going to be the two things, and we have to win this game with our offense," Geno Auriemma said.

"I thought in those three things – our rebounding, our transition D and our offense – that’s about as close to perfect as we’ve been all year, for sure. There’s a team mentality that you have to have, and the rebounding stats are always about effort.

"That, more than anything else, was evident today, that we played to win. I think that, more than anything else, was evident today, that we played to win. There wasn’t any, ‘I hope I don’t miss the shot. I’m not going to take the shot because I don’t want to miss it.’ This was a play-to-win game.”

The UConn Huskies have hit a rich vein of form ahead of March Madness as Geno Auriemma seeks to return his team to among the elite of college basketball after nine years without a national championship win.