Dawn Staley’s Cryptic Callout After UConn Geno Auriemma Post Seems to Backfire

South Carolina Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley might have gotten confused over a UConn social media post.

Oct 14, 2025; Birmingham, AL, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley talks with the media during SEC Media Days at Grand Bohemian Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images | Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images

Geno Auriemma's UConn Huskies women's basketball team dominated Dawn Staley's South Carolina Gamecocks squad in the 2025 NCAA national championship game on April 6, 2025, by a score of 82-59.

This marked the 11th national championship of Auriemma's career and capped off the iconic college career of Paige Bueckers with her first NCAA title. While there's clearly a ton of respect between Staley and Auriemma (and their respective programs), both sides have taken some subtle shots at each other in the wake of that title game.

And a series of social media posts from UConn, combined with recent news regarding Paige Bueckers, seems to have created some confusion for Staley, which has now resulted in a viral post that stemmed from this confusion.

University of South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley answers a question by moderator Dan Hughes during the University of Mount Union's Schooler Lecture speaker series April 23, 2025, in Alliance, Ohio. | Kevin Whitlock / Massillon Independent / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Paige Bueckers Coach Shoot and UConn Post Prompts Dawn Staley 'Trolling' Callout

Paige Bueckers made an appearance in London over the weekend, which was the first time she had visited the United Kingdom. She did a TV appearance at one point during her visit and asserted that the reason she was in London was because of a Coach shoot. What she meant by this is a photoshoot with the COACH clothing brand.

This girl never sleeps lmfaoo, Paige in London for a coach shoot

“I’m alive I’m here” 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/AtPVyjNUaN

— M💫 (@pbuckets67) October 26, 2025

Fans have been eagerly awaiting the results of that COACH shoot. In the meantime, the UConn women's basketball social media accounts took advantage of this pending photoshoot by joking about it with a photo of Auriemma posing with his NCAA championship trophies.

The post was captioned, "we heard everyone was really excited about a coach photoshoot? here you go".

UConn fans who heard about Bueckers' London cameo understood the joke. However, this joke seemed to go over Dawn Staley's head, which was conveyed with an X post she made on October 29.

"Oh I heard someone was trolling? Now that they got their swagger back. 🤣🤣🤣," Staley wrote in the post, which has over 260,000 views in less than three hours.

Oh I heard someone was trolling? Now that they got their swagger back. 🤣🤣🤣

— dawnstaley (@dawnstaley) October 29, 2025

It can't be said for certain what (or who) Staley is referring to. But essentially all of the comments suggest that Staley thought UConn's post of Auriemma and his trophies was a response to her. More specifically, fans think that Staley misconstrued the "coach photoshoot" caption as a dig at her for recently posing alongside a South Carolina recruit, which made waves on social media.

Staley followed this up with another X post that read, "🤣🤣🤣 everyone thinks everything is about them? Inside joke so come on inside. Oops the door of the church is now closed. ✌🏾".

🤣🤣🤣 everyone thinks everything is about them? Inside joke so come on inside. Oops the door of the church is now closed. ✌🏾

— dawnstaley (@dawnstaley) October 29, 2025

Again, it can't be said for certain what Staley was trying to say, or who she was directing her comments at. But this seems like a classic case of confusion stemming from a lack of pop culture context.