Dawn Staley Under Fire for Actions in South Carolina’s NCAA Title Game Loss to UConn
South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley saw her team’s hopes of a repeat national title come crashing to an end on Sunday against UConn, and some are criticizing the legendary coach for her actions during the game.
The Huskies jumped out to an early lead and steadily widened their margin, turning a 10-point halftime lead into a 30-point margin midway through the fourth quarter. UConn went on to win 82-59, securing the program’s first national title since 2015 and stopping Staley’s team from winning back-to-back championships.
Some fans took aim at Staley’s actions during the game, with the ESPN broadcast catching the coach’s emotional — and at times angry — reactions to her team’s play.
“It’s the 3rd quarter and dawn staley is acting like the games already over lmao no trust in her team at all,” one fan noted in a post on X.
Others noted that Staley appeared to curse at her team’s struggles in the second half, when UConn pushed their lead to 14 points.
While Staley may have been frustrated with her team’s play, she gave credit to UConn after the game.
“UConn’s been the standard. Any time you can get any wins you are breaking into moving ahead in the game,” Staley told reporters in her postgame press conference. “They had the better team this year.”
