UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma and former Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw are still feuding. And Auriemma has fired back on Muffet’s latest comments.
In a recent episode of the “Off the Looking Glass” podcast, two-time national championship winner McGraw, who retired in 2020 and now works as an analyst with the ACC Network, told Kate Fagan and Jessica Smetana that ESPN has “complete bias” towards UConn.
“UConn has done great things… But I think it goes over the top with ESPN,” McGraw said. “That is Connecticut’s network. Notre Dame has NBC. Connecticut has ESPN.”
Auriemma’s response: “I think the bias has something to do – if there is any – with the 11 national championships, which is a lot more than two,” he said Monday on the “UConn Women’s Basketball Coaches Show.”
McGraw was asked on the podcast in December if the Huskies have an “outsized” influence on women’s hoops.
The Fighting Irish and Huskies have been longtime rivals since 1996 when they first met. Connecticut leads the all-time series 39-19.
“I guess Muffet’s bored,” Auriemma said on Monday’s show. “I guess she doesn’t have a whole lot to talk about. Usually when she was coaching, when she did talk, nobody listened anyway. I guess she figures she’s got a platform now.
“If people didn’t want to watch us on television, I’m sure they wouldn’t put us on. If we didn’t generate the ratings, I’m sure people wouldn’t have us on. When you tend to win a lot, people want to watch you play a lot.”
While the Huskies’ primary network is SNY, they have six regular season games set to air on ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC.
Auriemma added: “I do want to thank the people at ESPN for helping us win those 111(games) in a row. If it wasn’t for them, there’s no way we could have done it. Hopefully, there’s some people there that can take some credit for that. Notre Dame has their own network. Our network is SNY. So I don’t know why anybody would think that ESPN is our network. … I’m just glad we don’t go 30 years between winning championships (Notre Dame went 18 years without a title). Maybe NBC ought to help them a little more.”
Contact Analis Bailey at aabailey@usatoday.com or on Twitter @analisbailey.
