VIDEO: UConn Head Coach Geno Auriemma Suggests Referees Rigged Game For Iowa After Controversial Late Call On Friday Night

 

Geno Auriemma speaks at a press conference after UConn's loss to Iowa.

Geno Auriemma press conference (via @SNYUConn Twitter)
UConn head coach Geno Auriemma suggested that the officials favored Iowa in Friday night’s Final Four matchup between the two sides.

The Hawkeyes are headed to the final of the NCAA Tournament following a 71-69 win over the Huskies that ended in controversial fashion.

Auriemma was visibly upset on the sideline after forward Aaliyah Edwards was called for an offensive foul with just over three seconds left. The call took away any chance UConn had of advancing past the Final Four and, despite all of the protest, it does appear that it was a correct decision from the refs.

Auriemma admitted he felt deflated after the loss.

“Hard to explain how you feel when your season ends so suddenly,” he said.

Asked about the call, he claimed that illegal screens were being made on every possession but the Huskies were the only team getting penalized for them.

“There’s probably an illegal screen call that you could make on every single possession,” he explained. “I just know that there were three or four of them called on us and I don’t think there were any called on them.

“So I guess we just have to get better at not setting illegal screens.“

The Late Call On UConn Set Off A Fiery Debate Online

The late foul call has been the subject of intense debate online, with fans arguing that it was weak while others are of the view that it was correct.

LeBron James weighed in immediately after the game, criticizing the officials over the decision. Antonio Brown was on the other side of the fence on Saturday morning, claiming to have read the rule on illegal screens.

 

UConn’s Paige Bueckers, though, refused to blame the refs, instead shouldering the responsibility and insisting that the Hawkeyes held their destiny in their own hands.

“We can talk about officiating, but players play,” she said. “Players decide the game.”

Meanwhile, Iowa’s headed to a second consecutive final, where they will face South Carolina.

 

UConn’s Geno Auriemma explains why he didn’t recruit Caitlin Clark

Just about every college basketball team would be ecstactic to have Caitlin Clark playing for them.

The Iowa Hawkeyes star is the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer, but predicting that when she was in high school would have been pretty bold.

Three other players were ranked higher than her in her high school class — Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese and Cameron Brink.

 

Geno Auriemma and Caitlin clark

Head coach Geno Auriemma of the UConn Huskies speaks with Caitlin Clark of the Iowa Hawkeyes after the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament at the Alamodome March 27, 2021, in San Antonio. (Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)

Reese and Brink committed to Maryland and Stanford, respectively, and while Clark stayed home to play with the Hawkeyes, UConn landed Bueckers, the top player of the class.

UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said he didn’t recruit Clark, and he had his reasons.

“I committed to Paige Bueckers very, very early, and it would have been silly for me to say to Paige, ‘Hey listen, we’re going to put you in the backcourt, and then I’m going to try really hard to recruit Caitlin Clark.’ I don’t do it that way,” Auriemma said earlier this week, via CT Insider.

Hindsight is 20/20.

Bueckers missed a season with a torn ACL, while Clark’s resume speaks for itself. The two will face each other in the Final Four Friday night.

Despite Clark raving about UConn, saying it’s the “coolest place on earth,” Auriemma made it seem like Clark wasn’t seriously eyeing the Huskies.

UConn vs Ohio State

Head coach Geno Auriemma of the UConn Huskies reacts during the first half against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at Climate Pledge Arena on March 25, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

“Caitlin is obviously a tremendous player, a generational player. But if Caitlin really wanted to come to UConn, she would have called me and said, ‘Coach, I really want to come to UConn,'” he said.

“Neither of us lost out. She made the best decision for her, and it’s worked out great. We made the decision we thought we needed to make.

“There are a lot of great players we see coming through high school, thousands of them. You’re only going to recruit some. You’re not going to recruit all of them. Some people do recruit all of them, I don’t. I try to lock in on who fits us,” Auriemma added.

“We try to lock in on them early, and that’s what happened to us and Paige. We felt really, really comfortable with that, and we went with it. Those are decisions that are made every day, every year, by every coach.”

Caitlin Clark cutting net

Caitlin Clark of the Iowa Hawkeyes cuts down the net after beating the LSU Tigers 94-87 in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament at MVP Arena April 1, 2024, in Albany, N.Y.  (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

The top-seeded Hawkeyes lost the national championship to LSU last year, but they got their revenge in the Elite Eight. UConn, meanwhile, is in its 23rd Final Four and its 15th in the last 16 tournaments and looking for its 13th national title.

The Huskies haven’t won since their fourpeat from 2013 to 2016.