00:00And I'll tell you what, one of the storylines this weekend was Gino Auriemma versus Dawn Staley.
00:08That thing on the sideline there after the game when his UConn Huskies, Gino Auriemma's Huskies got run off the
00:14floor and him going over there with the handshake, him getting her face, her saying, don't do that.
00:21You're dismissing what these two programs did in this game to get to this game.
00:26Don't dismiss it.
00:27Don't do that.
00:28But I got to tell you about Gino, man.
00:30In my opinion, that was great for the women's game.
00:33And I'll tell you why.
00:34Yes, he's a tool.
00:36Yes, that was uncalled for.
00:39By the way, his apology.
00:41See this apology here?
00:43What's the one thing missing in this apology?
00:46Dawn Staley's name.
00:48He couldn't even bring himself to bring her name up in an apology.
00:53Look at this there.
00:53There's no excuse for how I handled the end of the game versus South Carolina Gamecocks.
00:59It's unlike what I do.
01:02What are standard here at UConn and what we've said?
01:04I want to apologize to the staff, no Don, and to the team at South Carolina.
01:10It was uncalled for how I reacted.
01:13The story should be how well South Carolina's players, I'll add, destroyed my UConn Huskies.
01:21I don't want my actions to detract from what I've had a great relationship with that staff.
01:28And I sincerely want to apologize to them.
01:31Gino, the tool, or Emma.
01:34Hey, dude, I think you did a lot right there to promote women's sports and women's the final today.
01:40Hey, look, you need a villain in sports.
01:43And anytime you have a villain, that's a good thing.
01:47Villains are needed in sports.
01:49When you have the good guy, bad guy dynamic.
01:52And Gino was a tool.
01:53He completely was.
01:55Everyone is banging on him.
01:58Everyone's saying how unprofessionally looked.
02:01Everyone's bringing that front and center.
02:03Well, guess what?
02:04I hadn't really talked about the women's game at all.
02:08Now we're going to be watching this afternoon and see if Dawn Staley's Gamecocks can win another national championship.
02:15This goes back to the days when Gino used to have his arguments with Pat Summitt and she was at
02:21Tennessee.
02:23He and her would go back and forth.
02:25And I thought it was a great dynamic back in the day when it came to promoting women's basketball.
02:30And this is kind of what you have here.
02:32Yes.
02:33Bad look for Gino.
02:35Gino, how could he ever be and have a bad look?
02:38By the way, Dan Hurley was asked the question about Gino and about his actions and what he did, you
02:45know, towards Dawn Staley.
02:46He's like, if there is one guy who is genuine and there is one guy who deserves the pass, it's
02:53Gino Ariema.
02:54He's one of the most genuine dudes you'll ever meet in your entire life.
02:59And he's one of the most important people in all of basketball and what he's meant to, especially the women's
03:05game.
03:06I get this.
03:07I didn't like what he did.
03:08But if you think about it, when it comes to promoting the sport, I love what he did, because what
03:14it does, it puts focus on it.
03:16You have a conversation.
03:18There's dialogue.
03:19There's going back.
03:21And again, like I said about having the villain, Ariema has played that villain.
03:26UConn is a villain.
03:27Look at the two coaches you have at UConn.
03:31You have Gino Ariema and you have Dan Hurley.
03:34That's the Rome of basketball today.
03:38That's where college basketball resides, no matter what happens in the national championship game on Monday, right?
03:47UConn basketball is the Rome of basketball right now.
03:52Third national championship game in four years.
03:55How many final fours did Gino have going into this?
03:59He had 25, right?
04:01Final fours going into this with all the national championships.
04:05You put him in the same conversation with John Wooden with how many victories that he's got and how many
04:11national championships.
04:12I absolutely loved in a way what he did, because what he did was he put the focus on the
04:18game.
04:19Now, look, it was a tool move, as I said.
04:22And Dawn Staley was absolutely right in how she responded.
04:27I love how the Gamecocks responded.
04:29And I loved how their players responded.
04:31This is going to give them a nice little juice going into this game here.
04:35Gino Ariema and Dawn Staley had to be separated.
04:39This is the storyline coming out of that Final Four game.
04:43Had to be separated between the two.
04:47Hey, man.
04:49Villain versus the good guy.
04:51That's what sports are.
04:53Bad guy versus good guy.
04:56Villains versus the guys in the white hat.
04:59You made Dawn Staley a person in a white hat.
05:03And now he goes into the national championship game against UCLA today, looking for another title and another feather in
05:10that hat.
05:11Man, I liked it.
05:12Again, he's a tool for doing it.
05:15But he brings a lot to the game.
05:18Gino Ariema.
05:19He'll go down as, by far, one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time.
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