After inciting a heated argument with Dawn Staley in the final moments of UConn’s Final Four loss to South Carolina on Friday night, Geno Auriemma released a statement apologizing for his actions on Saturday.

“There’s no excuse for how I handled the end of the game vs. South Carolina. It’s unlike what I do and what our standard is here at Connecticut,” he said. “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.”

As Auriemma shook Staley’s hand near the end of the Huskies’ 62-48 defeat, he made a comment that Staley immediately took offense to. The two began yelling at each other and needed to be separated by both officials and their respective coaching staffs.

When the final 0.1 seconds remaining ran off the clock, Auriemma walked straight into the locker room, though the two teams went through the handshake line a second time without incident.

While Staley brushed off the altercation and directed any further questions to Auriemma, the longtime head coach doubled down.

“I just said what I had to say,” he said.

“I said what I said and obviously she didn't like it,” he added later. “I just told the truth.”

The head coach’s frustrations began with a perceived slight pregame. During introductions, Auriemma had to wait for the customary handshake with Staley.

“For 41 years I've been coaching and [made] 25 Final Fours. The protocol is before the game you meet at half-court. Anybody see that before? Two coaches meet at half-court and they shake hands, correct? Ever see it? They announce it on the loudspeaker. I waited there for like three minutes. So it is what it is,” he said.

The complaints didn’t end there, though. During an in-game interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe, Auriemma alleged that Staley called “the referee some names you don’t want to hear” and received a better whistle as a result. He made a similar accusation postgame.

“I'm of the opinion that if I ever talk to an official like that, I would get tossed,” he said. “So I just want to make sure there's not a double standard, that some people are allowed to talk to officials like that and other people are not. That's it. So yeah, I was pretty frustrated.”

“It's not my place to judge whether any coach should ever get tossed,” he clarified. “I'm not suggesting that that should have happened tonight at all. Not at all.”

Notably, Auriemma did not mention Staley by name in his statement. Although he said he has “a great relationship with their staff,” in his apology, he did not say the same about Staley on Friday night.

“We’re rivals. Yeah, that’s about it,” he said.

“We don't have a lot in common,” he continued later. “I mean, Dawn was my assistant on the (US) Olympic team and we've been coaching against each other for a long, long time. I have a tremendous amount of respect for what she's done in South Carolina. I remember when she got there, I mean, the program had basically fallen off the map. So for her to take her program and take it to where it is right now, I have a tremendous amount of respect for that.”