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PHOENIX, ARIZONA - APRIL 03: Head coach Geno Auriemma of the UConn Huskies reacts during the first quarter against the South Carolina Gamecocks in the Final Four of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
"Officials are never as good as you want them to be, and after the game, they're never as bad as you thought they were."
This is a piece of advice Geno Auriemma says he internalized early in his legendary coaching career with the UConn women's basketball program, and an attitude that was tested during the third quarter of this year's national semifinal matchup against South Carolina, where the Gamecocks were not whistled for a foul during the entire third quarter.
In the moment, Auriemma was furious, lashing out at the Final Four officiating crew during a sideline interview with ESPN's Holly Rowe before instigating a controversial post-game spat with Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley.
However, even with months of hindsight, Auriemma still has plenty of grievances toward the officiating of UConn's NCAA Tournament exit, believing that the three-person officiating crew of Brenda Pantoja, Fatou Cissoko-Stephens and Katie Lukanich was not qualified to call a game of that magnitude.
"We've got a lot of officials - we had three of them doing the game against us in the semifinals - that had no business being in that game according to where they were rated," Auriemma said in an interview with journalist Richard Deitsch on his "Sports Media" podcast Monday. "People get jobs, and you wonder why."
The ratings Auriemma refers to are internal evaluation systems used by both individual conferences and the NCAA to grade officials and assign top performers to the most significant games in regular-season and tournament play - these ratings are not published publicly. Two officials entered this year's matchup with recent Final Four experience, as Pantoja refereed South Carolina's national semifinal win over Texas last season while Lukanich was tasked with calling UConn's 71-69 setback against Iowa two years ago.
However, Cissoko-Stephens had not previously officiated a Final Four contest and earned her first experience calling a game beyond the Sweet 16 in 2025.
Entering the game with a perfect record and historic efficiency marks, the Huskies suffered a stunning regression on offense against South Carolina in the national semifinal, shooting just 31% from the floor in a 62-48 loss - Auriemma compared the game to the famously physical NHL matchups between his hometown Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers in the 1980s.
The UConn moved past his frustration with the individual officials and bemoaned an overall preference for physical play that restricts offensive movement and success.
"Those officials have a hard job to do, obviously, but they are basically, supposedly, calling the game the way they are directed to call the game," Auriemma said. "People think that showing off how physical your game is a badge of honor. Like, 'Look how tough our game is, look how physical it is.' It's bull----. They can't play like that."
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This article originally published at Geno Auriemma says Final Four refs for South Carolina-UConn had 'no business' officiating game.
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