UConn men's coach Dan Hurley has weighed in on the controversial Final Four exchange between Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley. While many criticized Auriemma, Hurley came to his defense. He joked about his own influence before calling his colleague one of the 'classiest people' he knows.

While Dan Hurley's UConn Huskies have advanced to the national championship game, Geno Auriemma could not hold his end of the bargain on the women's side of coaching.

The UConn women's basketball team got knocked out 62-48 by Dawn Staley's troops in the Final Four. But what made headlines was the heated exchange between Auriemma and Staley at the end of the fourth quarter.

The current men's coach couldn't help but acknowledge Auriemma's skirmish with Staley when speaking with the media postgame.

“Obviously, I’ve had a negative influence on Geno,” Hurley joked, per Front Office Sports reporter Amanda Christovich.

Although Hurley joked at his own expense, he has indeed become known for his heated personality throughout his coaching career, which continued last week after the team won their Elite Eight game against Duke in stunning fashion.

Hurley immediately went face-to-face with a game official and found himself lucky not to have picked up a technical foul.

The UConn men's coach did not forget to praise Auriemma and believes the right thing to do is to give the 72-year-old's reactions against Staley a second chance.

But history would tell you they've both had their fair share of hot-head moments while coaching. In hindsight, the duo seems quite fit to be coaching in the same program.

“Geno’s helped me so much. The way he handled the whole thing, he’s such a standup guy with the statement, and he’s one of the classiest people." Hurley said.

“If anyone should get the benefit of the doubt…He’s truly one of the most authentic, genuine, great people you’ll ever meet in your life.” The UConn men's coach added.

While Hurley has given us a piece of his mind regarding Auriemma's controversy, the majority still believe it was not meant from the heart and that someone of Auriemma's stature should have done a better job.

What was the Discourse Around Geno Auriemma's Apology Statement?

The 12-time NCAA championship-winning coach released an apology statement roughly 12 hours after his controversial actions in the fourth quarter against Staley and her staff.

“There’s no excuse for how I handled the end of the game vs. South Carolina,” Auriemma said in the statement released by UConn. “It’s unlike what I do and what our standard is here at Connecticut. I want to apologize to the staff and the team at South Carolina. It was uncalled for in how I reacted."

“The story should be how well South Carolina played, and I don’t want my actions to detract from that. I’ve had a great relationship with their staff, and I sincerely want to apologize to them.” The UConn women's basketball account posted Auriemma's words on social media.

However, Auriemma said everything but mentioned Staley's name in his statement, the person with whom he created the issue in the first place. Instead, he chose to apologize to the Gamecocks' "staff".

This made the majority of the basketball fraternity feel the apology was not genuine, and Auriemma did it just for the sake of it, to reduce the heat he was receiving all over social media.

Well, Staley had the last laugh in the end as she was the one who outclassed Auriemma to get into her third straight national championship appearance.

Read more at She Got Game!

Written by

Joy Bassy

Edited by

Kaamna Dwivedi