Two years ago, the women’s NCAA basketball championship game drew nearly 19 million viewers, surpassing viewership totals for the men’s championship matchup. Entering this year’s Final Four in Phoenix, the 2026 tournament was already coming off of its third most-watched Elite Eight round ever. Ten days before the semifinals, the average asking price for a Women’s Final Four ticket had already surpassed $800. Women’s sports has spent decades working towards this type of sustained growth. On Friday night, with less than 2 seconds remaining in the South Carolina v. UConn Final Four matchup, that South Carolina would win 62-48, a 30 second meltdown by Geno Auriemma threatened to make people forget about the growth and legitimacy women’s sport has achieved.

With 0.1 seconds remaining and South Carolina up 14 points (62-48), Coach Auriemma approached Coach Staley at the sideline for what appeared to be an end of the game handshake, but instead, he began yelling at her. Officials and assistants rushed in to separate the two coaches, and Staley was visibly angry as others worked to keep them apart. Auriemma had initiated the conversation, according to Staley. He then walked off the court without shaking anyone’s hand and disappeared into the tunnel alone.

During the post-game press conference, Auriemma certainly wasn’t apologizing. Pressed further for an explanation, Auriemma suggested he felt disrespected by a lack of a pregame handshake at half court. “For 41 years I’ve been coaching, 25 Final Fours and before the game, the protocol is you meet at halfcourt,” he said. “I waited there for like 3 minutes. So it is what it is.” As for what he yelled at Staley in those final seconds: “I said what I said, and obviously she didn’t like it.” The problem with that explanation is that video broadcast by ESPN after the game showed the two coaches shaking hands before tip-off. She did shake his hand.

Multiple Outbursts

It was not his first outburst of the night. Before the fourth quarter, with South Carolina holding a lead, Auriemma gave a live sideline interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe and unloaded. “There were six fouls called that quarter, all of them against us. And they’ve been beating the s*** out of our guys down there the entire game. I’m not making excuses, ’cause we haven’t been able to make a shot. But this is ridiculous. Their coach rants and raves on the sideline and calls the referees some names you don’t want to hear. And now we get six to zero and I’ve got a kid with a ripped jersey, and they go, ‘I didn’t see it.’ C’mon man. This is for the national championship.”

A Public Tantrum

Auriemma is the winningest coach in college basketball history, with 12 national championships and a program that has sent 28 players to the WNBA in the first round. Nobody serious is debating his legacy. What is worth debating is what it means when the sport’s most powerful male figure uses its most visible night to throw a public tantrum on live television, directed at one of the most accomplished Black women coaches in American sports history, over a handshake he received but decided didn’t count.

Women’s basketball has spent decades proving it belongs in the same conversation as any sport in the country. Historic ticket prices, viewership, attendance, and investments are all proof that the growth and legitimacy is here to stay. But none of that happened because of moments like Friday night. It happened in spite of them. The sport does not need its most decorated ambassador reminding the country that even at the Final Four, even in the middle of a decade-long surge, a man’s temper can still take up more space than the game itself.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com