As one of the biggest matchups in women's sports is set to start Tuesday night, the coaches of unbeaten UConn and Notre Dame shared some not so kind words in each other's direction.
When asked about the chance of some civility when it came to rival programs in the media, Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said simply "I think we are past that point.” McGraw went on the claify what she meant by the comments and stated that it all went downhill when Notre Dame and UConn were moved to the ACC and AAC respectively.
"When we were in the same conference, there was a modicum of it. But I think after beating them and still not feeling any respect for that, we definitely lost something.”
When UConn coach Geno Auriemma took the podium to speak to the media he responded
"I could sit here and list 10,000 coaches that don't interact with each other whose rivalries are intense," Auriemma said. "This is a function of women's basketball.
"Sometimes we act like girls, like we're supposed to go to dinner every night. We're supposed to play each other, try to beat each other's brains in, try to win a national championship and compete like hell, Muffet and Geno. And then we're supposed to get together afterwards and go have a bottle of wine? That s--- is just not going to happen.”
Auriemma then said that it would be difficult for he and McGraw to salvage a civil relationship. This feud is nothing new to women's basketball as Auriemma has never found a conflict he didn't want to be a part of and his latest episode is with McGraw and her undefeated Fighting Irish.
With the National Championship up for grabs Tuesday night, this could be just the action that woman's basketball needs. Auriemma is a spark plug and likes to get under his opponents skin where McGraw has said all the right things and spoke honestly. As for the game, the 39-0 UConn Huskies face-off with the 37-0 Notre Dame fighting Irish in an unprecedented matchup of undefeated juggernauts. Look out for how many times the cameras pan to the bench to see Auriemma and McGraw interact.
Who comes away undefeated with a National Championship? Tell us @SportsWN
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