Marriott Bonvoy might want to edit their TV ad “Where game day checks in,” most notably the part where Geno Auriemma is urging his players to “stay calm” and to “stay composed. ” Geno Auriemma was neither in the face of losing to Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks in the Final Four on Friday. A portly Auriemma swanned into this match-up undefeated, 38-0, with a misplaced sense of invincibility, believing his own press clippings over preparing his players for a worthy adversary. Big mistake. Dawn Staley’s team out hustled, out defended, out played UConn, defeating them 62-48, and Auriemma had no one to blame but himself. But in the mind of an old, entitled, smug white guy, that simply can’t happen. Better to transfer the inadequacy, invent a false narrative, shift the blame, attack a Black woman. Don’t assume that because a 72-year-old white man coaches 19-to twenty-something-year-old successful and powerful female athletes that he views those women as his equal. They are subordinate. They are a means to an end. He is in charge. He was not in charge on Friday, and we all saw the result. He was out-coached and out-maneuvered by a savvy Black woman who was not just his equal, but who, on that night, in more ways than one, was his better. And he couldn’t handle it. His jerkitude continued even in his sorry excuse of an official apology after the fact, where he couldn’t even bring himself to say Dawn Staley’s name. It’s easy to be gracious in victory, but one’s true character is shown in the face of stinging defeat. Geno Auriemma came up woefully short, showing the world that any respect he may show for successful, powerful women, and especially successful, powerful women of color, is only skin deep.