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Legendary women’s basketball coaches Dawn Staley and Geno Auriemma get into heated shouting match
Friday’s women’s March Madness game between UConn and South Carolina saw an eruption of tempers boiled over as two of the game’s sport’s most legendary coaches got into engaged in a heated sideline confrontation.
UConn’s Geno Auriemma and South Carolina’s Dawn Staley were seen shouting aggressively at each other in the closing moment moments of the game. South Carolina was on the verge of a 62-48 win in the Final Four, when With South Carolina closing in on a 62-48 Final Four win, Auriemma approached Staley, and the exchange began to speak to her aggressively, before the conversation devolved into quickly escalated into a visible shouting match.
After the game, Auriemma did not shake Staley’s hand.
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Staley addressed the incident in an interview with ESPN immediately afterward.
“I have no idea, but I’m going to let you know this, I’m of integrity. I’m of integrity,” Staley said. “So if I did something wrong to Geno, I had no idea what I did, I guess he thought I didn’t shake his hand at the beginning of the game, I didn’t know, I went down there pregame, shook everybody on his staff’s hand, I don’t know what we came with after the game, but hey sometimes things get heated. We move on.”
Auriemma was seen shaking Staley’s hand in ESPN footage before the game.
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Auriemma addressed the incident in the postgame press conference.
“I don’t want what happened there to dampen what we were able to accomplish today,” Staley said.
Meanwhile, Auriemma expressed displeasure with Staley and the referees during an in-game interview on ESPN.
“There were six fouls called that quarter — all of them against us,” Auriemma said on the broadcast. “And they’ve been beating the (expletive) 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 referee some names you don’t want to hear. And now we get 6 to 0, and I got a kid with a ripped jersey, and they go, ‘I didn’t see it.’ Come on, man. It’s for a national championship.”
After the game, Auriemma declined to elaborate on the incident.
“I said what I had to say and… nothing… nothing,” he said when asked what happened with Staley, refusing to tell reporters what he said.
“Why would I say it. I said what I said and obviously she didn’t like it. I just told the truth.”
Auriemma later addressed the speculation over the handshake pre-game and his mid-game interview.
“I don’t have any regrets,” Auriemma said of his mid-game interview.
“I’ve been coaching a long time, I never had a kid have to change their jersey because somebody ripped it and the official said they didn’t see it. There were a lot of things that happened in that game. Unless you’re on that sideline you have no idea what’s happening on that sideline…
“The protocol is, before the game, you meet at halfcourt, anybody ever see that before? The two coaches meet at halfcourt and they shake hands… they announce it on the loud speaker. I waited there for like three minutes.”
Footage of the shouting exchange quickly went viral on social media, with many fans shocked to two of women’s basketball’s most respected figures clash so publicly.
ESPN star Stephen A. Smith blasted Auriemma for the incident in an X post.
“That was some straight B.S. from the GREAT Geno Auriemma. Never — ever — thought I’d see the day when the greatest woman’s college coach in history would go down so CLASSLESSLY!!! Horrible look, and should be called out for it. He got OUTCOACHED,” Smith wrote. “Plain and simple. And gets in her face like she did something wrong to him instead of being gracious. Had Dawn Staley acted like that we would be all over her.”
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Trump greeted at UFC 327 in first sporting event appearance since start of Iran war
President Donald Trump was greeted by a packed crowd at UFC 327 in Miami Saturday night during the president’s first appearance at a sporting event since the start of the Iran war. Fans in attendance erupted into raucous applause as Trump walked into the venue.
Trump made his way out with UFC CEO and president Dana White and went around to the announcers and had an exchange with Joe Rogan, who was sitting at the announcers’ table.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was standing nearby the seats right before Trump walked out, then leaned in to Trump and started whispering very closely to the president, cupping his hands over his mouth and they each exchanged a few words. Trump then turned around, pumping his fist to those sitting behind him, smiling and waving, then pointed a few times to the crowd.
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Trump has been a frequent fixture at UFC and other combat sports events during his presidency, during his 2024 campaign and even dating back to his first term.
In 2025, Trump attended UFC 316 and Miami fight night. In 2024, he attended UFC 302 in June and UFC 309 in November.
In 2019, he attended UFC 244.
Before Saturday, the last major sporting event Trump attended was the College Football Playoff national championship game between Indiana and Miami at Hard Rock Stadium Jan. 19.
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Trump was notably absent from this year’s Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics in Italy and didn’t attend any other events after the Iran war broke out.
But after Tuesday’s ceasefire agreement, Trump has returned to sport. Trump addressed the ongoing situation with Iran at the White House before departing for Joint Base Andrews to travel to Miami for the UFC event.
“We’re in very deep negotiations with Iran. We win regardless. We’ve defeated them militarily,” Trump told reporters. “Whether we make a deal or not makes no difference to me. And the reason is because we’ve won, whether you listen to the fake news or not.”
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Heather Graham says classmates dismissed her as ‘nerdy’ before Hollywood breakthrough proved them wrong
Before Hollywood came calling, Heather Graham said, she was dismissed as a “nerdy” teenager.
The actress recalled being underestimated in high school before landing the popular cheerleader role in “License to Drive,” a turning point she described as a “huge moment” that launched her independence and her career.
“I was nerdy. … You know, I was smart, and I was just, like, nobody thought I was that pretty,” Graham recalled during an episode of “Dinner’s on Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson.”
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“So, I got this job as, like, the popular, pretty cheerleader, and I had very bad style and bad hair and makeup. Like, I did not know how to, like, do that. And then people were like, ‘Oh?’
“[The movie] came out right as I was graduating,” Graham added. “And I think people were like, ‘Well, maybe we should have paid attention to her.'”
Graham revealed landing the iconic role as Mercedes Lane in “License to Drive” was a “huge moment” for her at 17.
“It was huge for me. Like, that was a huge moment,” she explained. “I got to make money. I was independent. I had a bank account, you know, and I could live on my own.”
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Graham began her career with small roles in commercials and TV before landing teen films such as “Drugstore Cowboy” and “Swingers.”
She got her breakthrough with “Boogie Nights,” “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” and “Bowfinger.”
Graham landed a role in the blockbuster film “The Hangover” in 2009. She has since continued acting in films and TV while also expanding into writing and directing projects.
Her latest film, “They Will Kill You,” hit theaters March 27.
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The 56-year-old actress shared some of her beauty secrets in a recent interview with Us Weekly.
Graham claimed she’s “never had an actual operation where they’re cutting my face open.” But she said she has tried a series of other methods, including “microneedling, Botox … and a bunch of lasery things.”
“Some of those laser treatments are torture,” she said. “Like, an hour and a half of your face getting blasted.”
The movie star’s goal is to stay away from invasive plastic surgery because she doesn’t “want to look freaky,” and her “goal is to look natural.”
“I feel like some people get facelifts and they just kind of end up looking like … I mean, there are people that get it, and it’s good. But I just don’t want to be one of those people that got it and look freaky,” she said. “But I don’t know if [when] I got older, I wouldn’t completely rule out. Who knows, in the future.”
Graham also tries to maintain a balanced diet and get 10 to 11 hours of sleep. She said she uses yoga as a way to stay in shape and manage stress, calling it “so cathartic.”
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Seven-foot statue unveiled honoring Magawa, award-winning rat who found more than 100 landmines in Cambodia
A landmine-sniffing rat who won a gold medal for “life-saving devotion to duty” in Cambodia has been honored with a massive stone statue.
Magawa, a rat who gained fame in the country for sniffing out more than 100 mines (more than 1.5 million square feet) in his five-year career — more than any other rat in the country — retired in 2021 and died at age 8 in 2022.
The African giant pouched rat was trained by the Belgian charity APOPO to use his keen sense of smell to sniff out landmines and other explosives.
In Cambodia, more than 1 million people live and work in areas dotted with landmines, according to BBC News.
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In 2020, Magawa received the PDSA Dickin medal for gallantry, which recognizes heroism in animals.
He was the first rat in the organization’s history going back to 1943 to win the award.
Magawa was able to walk over areas with land mines safely because of his light weight and would alert his handlers to a mine by scratching the surface, according to Smithsonian magazine. He would then receive a treat.
“During his career, Magawa found over 100 landmines and other explosives, making him APOPO’s most successful HeroRAT to date,” the organization said in 2022, while announcing his death. “His contribution allows communities in Cambodia to live, work and play without fear of losing life or limb.”
Cambodia has the highest rate of landmine amputees per capita of any country.
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APOPO added, “Every discovery he made reduced the risk of injury or death for the people of Cambodia.”
The statue was unveiled in Siem Reap, Cambodia, April 3, just in time for International Day for Mine Awareness April 4.
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