10:24 PM
The women's basketball coach at the University of Connecticut, Geno Auriemma, fired back at Muffet McGraw on Monday after the former Notre Dame coach made comments about bias.
"I think the bias has something to do with the 11 national championships, which is a lot more than two," Auriemma said on the "UConn WBB Coaches Show." I remember that on 'Sesame Street'.
During a Dec. 22 appearance on the "Off the Looking Glass" podcast, Kate Fagan and Jessica Smetana asked if the University of Connecticut has an "outsized" influence on women's basketball.
"Yes," said McGraw, who retired after the 2020 season and now works as an analyst for the ACC Network. "UConn has done great things, and they've won more than anyone else, except Tennessee." What they've done has been amazing. People measure their team by them. When we joined the Big East, we wanted to get to where they are. We want to be that. We're trying to be like them.
I think it goes over the top with the network. Connecticut's network is that one. Notre Dame has a television network. Connecticut has a television station. That is completely biased.
At the time, Auriemma said he had no comment. He didn't hold back when he addressed the claims on Monday.
"I guess Muffet is bored," Auriemma said. She doesn't have a lot to say. Nobody listened when she was talking. She thinks she has a platform now.
I'm sure people wouldn't put us on if they didn't want to watch us. I'm sure people wouldn't have us on if we didn't have ratings. People want to watch you play a lot.
"I want to thank the people at ESPN for helping us win those games in a row," Auriemma said. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have done it. Hopefully, there's some people that can take some credit for that.
Four games have been broadcasted on ABC, but two more are still to come. Fox is the official network of the Big East, and most of the games are broadcast on SNY. The SEC and the Atlantic Coast Conference have their own networks that broadcast multiple women's basketball games each week.
"Notre Dame has their own network, ours is SNY," Auriemma said. I don't understand why anyone would think that our network is ESPN. We don't go 30 years between winning titles. Maybe NBC should help them more.
Notre Dame's network is NBC.
"We've been on the network a lot," Auriemma said. There are a lot of other schools close by. I don't think the bias has anything to do with where the sports network is located.
The war of words between Auriemma and McGraw has been going on for a long time. The series between Notre Dame and the University of Connecticut began in 1996. In the women's Final Four, Notre Dame leads 5-3, but all of the Fighting Irish victories were in the national semifinals. The programs played in the NCAA finals two times.
