Geno Auriemma vs. Dawn Staley head-to-head record: Comparing UConn, South Carolina coaches

Posted by author February 16, 2025 Basketball

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This part of the women’s college basketball schedule normally sees teams finishing up their respective conference slates and solving problems in hopes of going on a deep postseason run.

However, that won’t be the case Sunday when No. 7 UConn travels to No. 4 South Carolina for a late-season, top-10, nonconference showdown at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina.

Sunday’s matchup not only features two national championship contenders, but also two of the top coaches in the sport in UConn’s Geno Auriemma and South Carolina’s Dawn Staley.

While Auriemma has been at it a tad longer than Staley has — 40 seasons compared to 25 — the two legendary college basketball coaches have built their respective programs into women’s basketball powerhouses.

The two have combined for 302 wins, seven conference championships, seven Final Four appearances and two national championships over the last five seasons.

Here’s a comparison of Auriemma and Staley ahead of Sunday’s meeting between UConn and South Carolina:

Geno Auriemma vs. Dawn Staley

Head-to-head record

Geno Auriemma regular-season record vs. Dawn Staley: 7-4
Geno Auriemma postseason record vs. Dawn Staley: 1-1
Geno Auriemma overall record vs. Dawn Staley: 8-5

Auriemma holds an 8-5 overall head-to-head record vs. Staley, including a 7-4 regular-season record. The 70-year-old coach took the first postseason meeting against Staley, a 94-65 win in the 2018 Albany Regional final that sent the Huskies to an 11th straight Final Four.

It wasn’t until the seventh meeting between UConn and South Carolina, in 2020, that Staley earned her first win against Auriemma — which also marked the Gamecocks’ first win against the Huskies. In that 70-52 win for South Carolina, the Gamecocks defense held UConn to just two points in the first quarter, which was the fewest points in the opening frame for an Auriemma-led team since 2016.

After a loss in 2021, Staley and South Carolina have won the last four meetings against Auriemma and UConn. Of those four wins, the most notable is the 2022 NCAA championship game at the Target Center in Minneapolis — the second national championship title for the Gamecocks under Staley.

Here’s a game-by-game breakdown of Auriemma and Staley’s meetings:

Dec. 28, 2008: UConn 77, South Carolina 48
Feb. 9, 2015: UConn 87, South Carolina 62
Feb. 8, 2016: UConn 66, South Carolina 54
Feb. 13, 2017: UConn 66, South Carolina 55
Feb. 1, 2018: UConn 83, South Carolina 58
March 26, 2018: UConn 94, South Carolina 65 *
Feb. 11, 2019: UConn 97, South Carolina 79
Feb. 10, 2020: South Carolina 70, UConn 52
Feb. 8, 2021: UConn 63, South Carolina 59
Nov. 22, 2021: South Carolina 73, UConn 57 **
April 3, 2022: South Carolina 64, UConn 49 *
Feb. 5, 2023: South Carolina 81, UConn 77
Feb. 11, 2024: South Carolina 83, UConn 65

* Denotes postseason game

** Denotes neutral site regular season game

Final Four record

Geno Auriemma: 12-11
Dawn Staley: 3-3

Auriemma holds a nine-win advantage over Staley in the Final Four, though UConn’s Hall of Fame coach has 15 more seasons under his belt.

It took until Auriemma’s sixth season in Storrs, Connecticut, for the Huskies to reach the Final Four, where they fell 61-55 to 1-seed Virginia — which Staley starred on as a player. UConn returned to the Final Four in 1995 and capped a 35-0 season with the national championship. After falling in the Final Four in 1996, UConn made five consecutive Final Fours from 2000-2004, winning four national titles. After missing out on the Final Four from 2005-2007, UConn appeared in 14 consecutive Final Fours. The Huskies returned to the Final Four last year, losing to Caitlin Clark and Iowa after a controversial foul on Aaliyah Edwards.

As for Staley, she first reached the Final Four in 2015 and returned in 2017 when South Carolina first won it all. She has made four consecutive trips to the Final Four, with South Carolina going 2-2 — with the losses coming to 1-seed Stanford in 2021 and 2-seed Iowa in 2023.

National championship record, history

Geno Auriemma: 11-1
Dawn Staley: 3-0

Auriemma holds an 11-1 record in the national championship game, with his lone loss coming to Staley and South Carolina in the 2022 national title game. In that game, the Gamecocks held the Huskies to just eight points in the first quarter.

Staley is 3-0 in the national championship game, with her most recent win coming last year against Iowa and Clark. She won her first national championship against Mississippi State in 2017 and then her second in 2022 against UConn and Auriemma.

Here’s a game-by-game breakdown of Auriemma’s history in the national championship game:

Seed in parentheses

1995 National Championship: (1) UConn 70, (1) Tennessee 64
2000 National Championship: (1) UConn 71, (1) Tennessee 52
2002 National Championship: (1) UConn 82, (1) Oklahoma 70
2003 National Championship: (1) UConn 73, (1) Tennessee 68
2004 National Championship: (2) UConn 70, (1) Tennessee 68
2009 National Championship: (1) UConn 76, (3) Louisville 54
2010 National Championship: (1) UConn 53, (1) Stanford 47
2013 National Championship: (1) UConn 93, (5) Louisville 60
2014 National Championship: (1) UConn 79, (1) Notre Dame 58
2015 National Championship: (1) UConn 63, (1) Notre Dame 53
2015 National Championship: (1) UConn 82, (4) Syracuse 51
2022 National Championship: (1) South Carolina 64, (2) UConn 49

Here’s a game-by-game breakdown of Staley’s history in the national championship game:

Seed in parentheses

2017 National Championship: (3) South Carolina 67, (7) Mississippi State 55
2022 National Championship: (1) South Carolina 64, (2) UConn 49
2024 National Championship: (1) South Carolina 87, (1) Iowa 75

Geno Auriemma overall record, coaching experience

Geno Auriemma overall record: 1,237-165

Entering Sunday’s road game at South Carolina, Auriemma holds a 1,236-165 overall record across his 40 seasons at UConn — the most wins by any NCAA Division I college basketball coach.

Taking over in 1985, Auriemma transformed UConn into the preeminent women’s college basketball program, winning 11 national championships and reaching 23 Final Fours.

Since rejoining the Big East prior to the 2020-21 season, UConn has gone 145-23 overall and 84-3 in conference play — with all but three of its losses coming against non-Big East teams. The Huskies’ three Big East losses have come to Villanova in 2022 and Marquette and St. John’s in 2023.

Here’s a decade-by-decade breakdown of how the Huskies have fared under Auriemma:

1985-1990: 92-51
1990-2000: 301-44
2000-2010: 342-27
2010-2020: 356-20
2020-present: 145-17

Dawn Staley overall record, coaching experience

Dawn Staley overall record (Temple + South Carolina): 635-188

Entering Sunday’s top-10 showdown, Staley holds a 635-188 overall record across her 25 seasons at Temple and South Carolina.

Staley holds a 463-108 overall record at South Carolina. The Gamecocks’ best season came last year, when they became the 10th team — and the first team since UConn in 2016 — in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history to go undefeated.

Over the last four seasons, South Carolina has gone 132-5. The losses: at Missouri in 2021; vs. Kentucky in 2022 SEC Tournament; vs. Iowa in 2023 Final Four; to UCLA and Texas this season.

Here’s a decade-by-decade breakdown of how Staley’s teams have fared, both at Temple and South Carolina: