Women's Fastbreak On SI

Arike Ogunbowale Laughs Off Geno Auriemma's Suspected Past Disrespect

WNBA superstar Arike Ogunbowale found resurfaced shade shown her way by Geno Auriemma as laughable on Friday.

Grant Young

Jul 20, 2024; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Team WNBA player Arike Ogunbowale celebrates with Caitlin Clark and Allisha Gray after making a three point shot during the second half against the USA Women's National Team at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Jul 20, 2024; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Team WNBA player Arike Ogunbowale celebrates with Caitlin Clark and Allisha Gray after making a three point shot during the second half against the USA Women's National Team at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Dallas Wings star guard Arike Ogunbowale setting a WNBA All-Star Game record with 34 points (all of which game in the second half) and therefore securing her second WNBA All-Star Game MVP award served as a reminder that Ogunbowale is one of the most lethal scorers in the entire sport.

And Arike has always been this way. During her college days at Notre Dame, her, Connecticut Sun standout Marina Mabrey, and Las Vegas Aces superstar Jackie Young won a 2018 NCAA Championship — which would not have arrived if Ogunbowale had not drained consecutive buzzer-beaters in the Elite Eight and then the Final Four.

The iconic Final Four shot came against a UConn Huskies team that featured WNBA standouts Napheesa Collier, Katie Lou Samuelson, Gabby Williams, and Kia Nurse and was also led by the legendary coach Geno Auriemma.

Ogunbowale would have had a good reason for this buzzer-beater against UConn to be personal, given a social media exchange she and Auriemma had years ago that resurfaced on social media Friday.

Back when Obunbowale was still in high school, she tweeted her recruiting list, "My Top 5 (alphabetical order): Louisville, Notre Dame, Ohio State, UCLA, Wisconsin".

14 minutes after that was published, Auriemma — whose Huskies were not included on that list — tweeted, "Stay tuned for my list of the 5 players I saw the past 7 days that I have zero interest in recruiting.... #whatajoke".

While it's unconfirmed what exactly Auriemma was upset about, it seems pretty obvious that he took issue with Ogunbowale's initial tweet.

X user @manvienalg4 posted screenshots of these tweets on Friday with the caption, "this was insane LMFAOOOO".

It seems that Ogunbowale is now able to laugh this off, as she then responded to the post with four emojis, "😭😭😂🥲".

She was probably laughing after that 2018 buzzer-beater too.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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