UConn and South Carolina will compete for the National Championship
USA TODAY’s Meghan Hall breaks down the upcoming matchup between the Gamecocks and the Huskies for the National Championship.
Sports Seriously
Geno Auriemma did not let a Final Four victory distract him from his grievances with the NCAA’s format for the 2025 women’s NCAA Tournament.
As he has in the past week, the UConn women’s basketball coach blasted the NCAA for travel schedule and gender discrepancy when it comes to the tournaments. Auriemma also called out the NCAA for not caring enough about the student athletes or listening to the coaches.
The Huskies earned a No. 2 seed in this year’s tournament and had to travel thousands of miles to Spokane, Washington, for the Sweet 16 and Elite. Following Monday’s 9:30 p.m. tipoff, UConn flew directly from Spokane to Tampa Bay for the Final Four the next morning.
In all, UConn has made two cross-country trips and has played four games in the last nine days. Meanwhile, on the men’s side, a few teams will have played four games over 13 days.
“Yeah, we finished Monday night and we play Friday,” Auriemma said to a media scrum following his press conference. “The guys finish Sunday and they play Saturday. But we’re in this for the student-athletes. No, you’re not. No, you’re not. You’re in it for everything but the student athletes.”
Despite the excitement of returning to the national championship game after UConn dominantly beat UCLA 85-51, Auriemma continued to let his frustration out about the NCAA Tournament. He has not shied away from making comments about the format this week.
One of his biggest gripes is the fact that the men’s tournament has four regional sites, while the women’s have just two.
“They come on your campus all the time and ask you, ‘You have any suggestions?’ and then they leave, and nothing changes,” Auriemma said of the organizers of the NCAA Tournament.
Geno Auriemma says two regional sites comes down to money
Back in 2023, the NCAA changed the format for the women’s tournament to have two host sites for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight. This year, the regional sites were in Spokane and Birmingham, Alabama.
Originally, the NCAA said the hope would be to draw more fans to the regional sites, however, Auriemma disagrees that the two regional sites accomplish that goal.
“So what you’re saying when you have two regions is you don’t care if half the country can’t get to a game,” Auriemma said. “Basically, that’s what you’re saying. But yeah, you want to grow the game. I mean, come on, it makes no sense. But if you ever had an administrator that ever coached or ever played in a Final Four or regional, and you realize what the limitations are in one gym with eight (teams), right? Yeah, but they don’t think that way. They don’t think that way.
“So, you know, it’s up to us as coaches. Don’t ask our opinion. If you’re going to dismiss it, at least give it some thought. And (NCAA President Charlie Baker) probably thinks it’s not a big deal that you fly 3,000 miles get here Tuesday night, when the team you’re playing against has been home already for 36 hours. They probably think that’s not a big deal either. So then, what are we trying to say? ‘But we’re in, we’re in this for the student athletes.’ Really? That’s interesting.”
Auriemma said the decision for two regionals boils down to just one major reason at the end of the day.
“You know why they have two regions?” Auriemma asked. “So they can cut costs. So they want to do it on the cheap, and then say how much money we’re making. ‘Isn’t the NCAA great look at the new TV package we got.’ And you know how much money we’re making yet? Because we’re short-changing the kids, right, and giving them that best experience.
Geno Auriemma on women’s vs men’s tournament
Auriemma ended with a mic drop comment, saying that the women’s tournament “experience sucks compared to the men’s experience.” He blamed the people in charge, saying the people running the women’s side are not “true basketball people.”
“That’s one of the big differences in the way women’s basketball is run today and men’s basketball was run in that you have really true basketball people making basketball decisions on the men’s side, and the only people that know that are schools that have been to multiple men’s and women’s Final Four and can sit there and list for you the differences, not that anybody cares,” Auriemma said.
“And listen, this isn’t sour grapes, because I don’t give a godd— where we play, when we play, who we play, what town, because we’ve done it and we still end up here. So this isn’t about, you know, Geno’s complaining. I’m not complaining about anything. I’m just telling you the student-athletes, their experience sucks compared to the men’s experience.”
