Every team is different, but for South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, they often yield the same results. The Gamecocks have won three national titles since 2017 and appeared in five Final Fours during that same span. No matter the personalities, strengths or weaknesses on her rosters, one thing stays the same: The Gamecocks know how to win.
Before this season, South Carolina had lost just three games in the previous three; it went undefeated on the way to a national title last season. That’s why, in many ways, this season came as a shock. The Gamecocks lost three games, including an early-season blowout to UCLA and a lopsided 87-58 loss to UConn that snapped a 71-game home winning streak that dated to December 2020.
Yet, with Selection Sunday looming, South Carolina is back in the same place. Once again, the Gamecocks are one of the top contenders to win the national title. That doesn’t surprise Staley.
“This team is competitive, and they are highly motivated,” she said.
Throughout the season, she has been impressed with the way her Gamecocks respond to criticism. That is good, because she says this is the most online team she has coached, joking that if she wants to check on her players, she just looks at 6-foot-5 redshirt freshman forward Adhel Tac’s TikTok account. “She’s always going live, doing her nails, doing her hair, eating,” Staley said with a laugh. “And then all her teammates are in the background.”
Their love for social media also opens the door for negative comments, something Staley says can be good and bad.
“Social media adds a lot of pressure,” she said. “There is good pressure and there is bad pressure. There is good hate and there is bad hate. You’re targeted for good reasons and for bad reasons, so you just have to take the good with the bad.”
A lot of those criticisms come directly from South Carolina fans because they’ve gotten used to success. That is what Staley calls “good hate.” It holds her team accountable.
“We have really diehard fans,” Staley said. “And if we don’t play our best basketball, they are going to stay something.”
Staley also is not one to keep her mouth shut. And this group in particular accepts her hard coaching. When they play poorly, Staley doesn’t have to downplay anything to protect their feelings. That’s part of the reason the Gamecocks have progressed so well this season, winning their past seven games, including a revenge win over Texas – one of the three teams they lost to earlier in the year – for an SEC Tournament championship.
“If I need to let them know that they need to get better in certain areas, they don’t take it personally,” she said. “They don’t take it to their parents and they don’t take it to other people. They just deal with it. I think it’s pretty cool when young people can take criticism to improve their game.”
At times this season Staley has wanted 5-foot-9 junior guard Raven Johnson to take more shots, 5-foot-10 sophomore guard MiLaysia Fulwiley to take better shots and for her bigs to rebound at a higher clip. Those are just a few of the issues she brings up in practice.
As a redshirt junior, Johnson has become a true floor general for the Gamecocks and owns a 2.9-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Last season, when South Carolina won the title, Johnson was a crucial element of the attack. She matched up with the opponent’s best player on defense and acted as a traditional point guard on offense. But Johnson also scored when necessary, averaging 8.1 points per game. This season that is down to 4.9 points per game, something Staley wants to see change in March Madness.
“She has to call her own number in certain situations,” Staley said, “so we are trying to teach her how to create opportunities for herself and when to do so.”
Johnson is just one small piece of a team with seemingly unlimited depth. Over the past few seasons, Staley has become known for her ability to play the right players at the right times while keeping everyone happy in the process. This season,routinely plays nine players – it was 10 until 6-foot-3 junior forward Ashlyn Watkins tore her ACL – with no one averaging more than 25.1 minutes per game. Te-Hina Paopao, a 5-foot-9 senior guard, plays the most out of anyone, notching those 25 minutes of action. Despite the plethora of talent, Staley says playing time is up to the individual and how well they perform when given the opportunity.
“We don’t beat around the bush,” Staley said. “We allow them to play to their strengths and play through their weaknesses, but at the same time, we let them know what they are doing wrong.”
South Carolina’s two leading scorers, 6-foot-3 freshman center Joyce Edwards and Fulwiley, come off the bench. Edwards is averaging 13.2 points per game, while Fulwiley contributes 12.0 points per game. Among the starters, 6-2 junior forward Chloe Kitts is the only double-digit scorer at 10.1 points per game.
Staley didn’t always have this much talent. She took over at South Carolina in 2008 and endured two losing seasons to start her tenure. Things changed when the consensus No. 1 recruit in the class of 2014, A’ja Wilson, committed to South Carolina. Wilson led the Gamecocks to a title in 2017 and opened the doors for a flood of top-ranked recruits. Now, Staley can get almost anyone she wants, like former players Aliyah Boston of the Virgin Islands and Kamilla Cardoso of Brazil. But her program stays solid because of the foundation she built with players like Wilson, who hails from Columbia, where the university is located. Staley made it a priority then to recruit local talent, and she’s continued to do so.
Since 2014, Staley has signed every top-35 recruit from the state of South Carolina. That includes Fulwiley, also from Columbia, and Edwards, who’s from Camden.
“We pride ourselves on keeping the best South Carolinians on roster,” Staley said. “It helps with attendance and it has helped us build this program.”
And it might just help the Gamecocks add a fourth title to their trophy case.
