In what is hopefully marked the end of Geno Auriemma’s Final Four spat with Dawn Staley, the UConn coach spoke about the incident publicly for the first time since the night of the game. He expressed regret about not keeping his emotions in check and letting his frustrations boil over on the court, then also addressed the criticism that came his way afterwards.

“When I walked in the locker room afterwards with the coaches, you're just shaking your head going, ‘Five more seconds. You couldn't keep it in for five more seconds,’” he said. “You just feel like a dumbass for the way it played out. We're all human, and we all do dumb shit.”

“Some of it was people have been lying in the wings, waiting for that moment,” he added later. “I brought the criticism on myself. I didn't bring the bullshit that came after it on myself.”

After 15 years in the WNBA, Tina Charles announced her retirement from basketball on Tuesday. She helped UConn capture two national championships in 2009 and 2010 — when it became the first team ever to complete back-to-back perfect seasons — and won four National Player of the Year awards as a senior. Charles departed as the program’s all-time leading scorer (2,346 points) and rebounder (1,367). She still holds the latter mark but now ranks fifth on the scoring list.

UConn’s star sophomore was not 100 percent during the NCAA Tournament. On Monday, Auriemma revealed that Strong “maybe practiced three days with us, full practice” during the month of March due to tightness and inflammation in her calves.

As a result, she’s already declined all opportunities with USA Basketball and plans to focus on rest and recovery this offseason.

“The plan for her this summer is to do as little as possible. This will be the first summer, probably since junior year in high school, where she's going to have the entire summer off and not do anything,” Auriemma explained. “No USA Basketball, no 3×3, no going to training camps, 5-on-5. So she's turned down pretty much every single thing.”

On Monday, Auriemma spoke to reporters for the first time since UConn’s season ended in the Final Four. While we’ve already put out a few stories (linked above) from that session and have plenty more to come, here are some extra quotes.

Geno’s thoughts on…

Azzi Fudd being picked first overall in the WNBA Draft: “I don't know that anyone was surprised that Azzi went number one. Maybe she was surprised. I don't know. I do think there was a sense of accomplishment. It isn't every day that you get two players that were teammates go No. 1 back-to-back. So for us, that was a great night. It was a tremendous accomplishment for Azzi. It was a great representation of our program. I thought she handled it beautifully, like she handles most things.”

Kelly Faris being named an assistant coach with the Chicago Sky: “Kelly was always one of those gym rat, study the game, asking questions all the time, tremendous focus on what we were doing and the little details [type of players]. I remember talking to her about what she thought about basketball after college… For her, it was always helping kids get better… For her to get to this spot? Yeah, she's kind of like Carla Berube. She's a little too quiet, so maybe there's something more down the road for her. But I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised. I always said you can't win with 10 Kelly Farises, but I'm not sure you can win easily without at least one.”

If Sarah Strong will learn from her poor performance in the Final Four: “Yeah, it’ll help her going forward. Having the officials that officiated the championship game will help her going forward, too.”

The relationship between Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd: “I think Paige had the best quote out of all of them: ‘What I do in my personal life is my own business and nobody else's business.’ I believe that, and as far as I'm concerned, they are two great people that have come through our program and done amazing things while they're here. Whatever else they do, that's a personal matter for them.”

UCLA winning its first national championship: “First first-time team to win in a long, long time, right? I think that's a good thing. That probably needs to happen — occasionally (laughs). I don’t think it needs to happen every year, but occasionally, I think that would be a good thing.”

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UConn is international:

Paige Bueckers attended the Met Gala on Monday:

Mark your calendars:

Crystal Dangerfield earned a master’s degree:

A quick UConn in the WNBA notebook ahead of opening weekend:

The WNBA season officially kicks off on Friday. There are currently 16 former UConn players on nine teams, though rosters still need to be finalized.

Connecticut Sun (Aaliyah Edwards, Olivia Nelson-Ododa) at New York Liberty (Breanna Stewart) — 7:30 p.m. ET on ION/League Pass

Washington Mystics at Toronto Tempo (Kia Nurse) — 7:30 p.m. ET on ION/League Pass

Golden State Valkyries (Kaitlyn Chen, Tiffany Hayes, Kiah Stokes, Gabby Williams) at Seattle Storm (Stef Dolson, Katie Lou Samuelson) — 10 p.m. ET on ION/League Pass

Dallas Wings (Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd) at Indiana Fever — 1 p.m. ET on ABC

Atlanta Dream at Minnesota Lynx (Napheesa Collier, Dorka Juhász) — 8 p.m. ET on League Pass

Chicago Sky (Azura Stevens) at Portland Fire (Serah Williams) — 9 p.m. ET on NBA TV