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The No. 1-seeded South Carolina Gamecocks took down the No. 1-seeded UConn Huskies in the Final Four on Friday, advancing to their fourth March Madness National Championship game in five years, in large part due to longtime head coach Dawn Staley.
Staley, who joined the Gamecocks in 2008, turned a program that was struggling to reach .500 into a National Championship-winning team in less than ten years.
The head honcho played at Virginia before joining the USA Basketball Team and winning three gold medals from 1996 through 2004. After college, she took her talents to the ABL and eventually the WNBA. During her time in the WNBA, she was also the head coach for the Temple Owls women's basketball team, where she led the squad to six NCAA Tournaments in her tenure from 2000 to 2008.
“Coaching — teaching the game — came relatively easy,” Staley said about her time at Temple in her Player’s Tribune article. “I connected extremely well with the players. I was still one of them; I was still close to the game. I spoke their language. I approached the game my first year as a coach the same way I approached the game as a player.”
“I spoke their language. I approached the game my first year as a coach the same way I approached the game as a player.”
The South Carolina program was struggling before Staley was hired. In fact, her first season at the program saw a 10-18 overall record and a 2-12 performance in the SEC. But the 2011-2012 season was a turning point in the program.
Staley led South Carolina to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2003, where they were knocked out in the Sweet Sixteen. The squad has made it to every March Madness Tournament since that year, and have made it to the Final Four in eight of these appearances.
By the 2013-2014 season, the Gamecocks won the SEC regular season title, going 14-2 in conference play. They secured their first of nine SEC Tournament Championships in the 2014-2015 season. This was also the year the team made the Final Four for the first time.
South Carolina won its first ever National Championship in 2017, with the squad headlined by four-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson. Wilson has accredited her success in part to her former head coach.
“She has really molded me into the player that I am today,” Wilson said after winning the WNBA Championship in 2023. “She spent countless hours just telling me what I need to do at the pro level. I thought that relationship was kind of going to disappear as I got to a pro [level] but we’ve still stayed together.”
Staley, who is the only person in basketball history to win Naismith Player of the Year and Naismith Coach of the Year, has seen even more success in the current decade. Her squad ended the 2020 season ranked first overall, but was not able to capitalize in the NCAA Tournament as it was canceled due to COVID-19.
She has led her squad to six-straight Final Four appearances, including four trips to the championship. Tournament wins in 2022 and 2024 helped them to become one of only five teams to collect at least three Women’s March Madness Championships and a win this year would make them one of just three teams to secure at least four titles.
Staley’s squad boasts a 36-3 record, and a 62-48 upset victory over the top-seeded UConn secured a spot in the Championship game for the third year in a row. The Gamecocks were led by Ta’Niya Latson’s 16 points and 11 rebounds, alongside Agot Makeer’s 14 points. Joyce Edwards also contributed 11 points and eight rebounds, but the team’s real key was Staley.
“Going into this game, she [Staley] talked about having belief and believing in ourselves because nobody else did,” South Carolina’s Ta’Niya Latson said after the victory. “The only people that believed in us were the people in that locker room. And I feel like having that in a coach, that really goes a long way, especially when you're considered the underdog. I feel like that gave us a lot of confidence.”
“Going into this game, she [Staley] talked about having belief and believing in ourselves because nobody else did”
The greatest determinant of a good coach is their ability to rebuild. Success is made easier with a stream of talent entering into a program, but Staley’s ability to completely turn the South Carolina program around cements her place in women’s basketball history.
Staley’s squad is set to play in the March Madness Championship against UCLA on Sunday.
