South Carolina's era continues to Dawn

Led by a coach who has won all her life, the Gamecocks beat back Iowa for an undefeated season.

Dawn Staley, Raven Johnson

First impressions can be rough, if they’re not quickly erased by a second. Debbie Ryan was Virginia’s coach, and she went to North Philadelphia to recruit Dawn Staley, who showed up for a 6 a.m. workout with a bag of doughnuts and some strawberry milk. Ryan, bemused, watched Staley’s high-speed ballhandling and figured the kid from Dobbins High could fuel herself however she wanted. Ryan saw the singularity that the NCAA, the WNBA, the Olympics and a Final four would see repeatedly.

Once Staley established herself as an All-American point guard, Ryan would try to even up the scrimmages by saddling her with the four least talented players on the roster. Staley’s team kept winning anyway. The Cavaliers went to three Final Fours in Staley’s four years, and she was named the Most Outstanding Player in the 1991 Final Four. It’s not a trophy she prizes. Virginia had a five-point lead on Tennessee with two minutes left and lost the championship game anyway, and Staley missed a driving shot that could have tied it.

By Sunday she had squared that account and most others. She had already coached South Carolina to two NCAA championships. But there’s always unfinished business on the table, and last year the Gamecocks had an unbeaten season foiled in the semifinals by Caitlin Clark and Iowa. So now they were in Cleveland, and South Carolina was undefeated again, and there were Clark and Iowa again, this time in the finals, as women’s basketball had become this crossover thing that was packing NBA arenas and muscling its way onto network TV. The women’s final was on ABC, while CBS had farmed out the men’s Final Four to TBS. No matter what Staley had done in a career of near-constant achievement, she would be standing in the brightest footlights of her career, and facing the most popular player in the history of the game that Staley had helped advance.

A couple of hours later, Staley was too numbed to speak, as her players, none of whom were in last year’s starting lineup, danced around her. South Carolina had beaten Iowa with controversy-free force, winning 87-75 and finishing with 38 wins and no losses. That brought the Gamecocks’ record, over the past three years, to 109-3. Connecticut has had longer winning streaks and has won more championships, but South Carolina is breezing through more competitive times.

About the only weakness South Carolina shows is a reluctance to shift into third gear when the ball goes up. Iowa capitalized and jumped ahead, 10-0. In the first quarter Clark had 18 points, which was a 72-point pace. Pro tip: When you hear someone talk about “pace,” in terms of extrapolating partial results into the final picture, close your ears.

South Carolina alternated defenders on Clark, using Raven Johnson and Bree Hall, and squeezed Clark’s teammates, especially up front. Clark missed 15 of the 20 shots she took in the final three quarters, and in the fourth she was shooting anxiously and quickly. Her last collegiate game was a hollow 30-pointer, marred by 10 for 28 from the floor and only four assists, but Staley knew what Clark had wrought. “She’s one of the GOATs of the game,” Staley said. “I want to thank her for lifting a heavy load for this sport.” 

The Gamecocks had obvious advantages and played to them. Kamilla Cardoso was the game MVP and might be the second-most difficult matchup in women’s basketball. “And she’s our beautiful Brazilian girl,” said teammate Te-hina Paopao. Cardoso is 6-foot-7, with soft hands and a knack for scoring through contact, and she avoided foul trouble. She had 15 points and 17 rebounds, and South Carolina won the boards, 51-35. Ashlyn Watkins didn’t have to repeat her 20-rebound performance on Friday, but freshman Tessa Johnson saw a need and filled it with 19 points and four 3-pointers. How much difference does a year make? Iowa only had one more three than the Gamecocks (9-8).

Staley had no real coaching ambitions after she stopped playing. She had been on three Olympic gold medal teams and carried the U.S. flag in the 2012 Opening Ceremonies. She had been voted among the top 15 players in WNBA annals. Dave O’Brien, the athletic director at Temple, petitioned Staley until she got tired of saying no. Temple was practically down the street from her home, and that part of town always needs some winning. The Owls were 10-18 the year before Staley, 19-11 in the first year, and qualified for six NCAA tournaments in eight years. South Carolina, with the resources to aim higher, hired Staley in 2008.

Significantly, Staley was making the same salary as Darrin Horn, the men’s coach. That didn’t often happen back then. She has just finished the third year of an eight-year deal worth $22.8 million, more than men’s coach Lamont Paris was making, until Paris’ Gamecocks tied for second in the SEC, and he signed a new deal for $26.25 million over six years.

South Carolina had been to two NCAA tournaments in 20 years. Staley’s Gamecocks got there in Year Three and won it in 2017, with A’ja Wilson. They were 32-1 in 2020 when Covid-19 shut down the season and scotched the NCAAs. In five different seasons they have lost two or fewer games.

Along the way Staley has walked the line between authority and sisterhood. Visitors to her office have seen her taking care of office duties while several of her players sit in the floor, watching soap operas. Sometimes she can still be the mischievous imp with the bag of doughnuts. On Thursday, in a usually starchy pre-Final Four press conference, Staley idly asked the media to settle a debate among her coaches, as they noticed the players lounging in the locker room. “Is it ‘lying down’ or ‘laying down?’’’ she asked. Told that “lying” was the correct answer, she said, “Because someone once told me that you have to lie to get laid.” Then she shook her head, smiled, apologized and began the usual spiel: “So excited to be here…” The room cracked up.

Staley also spiced up the event, on Saturday, when she said transgender athletes should be welcome in women’s sports “if you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports, or vice versa. So now the barnstormer people are going to flood my timeline and be a distraction to me on one of the biggest days of our game. And I’m OK with that. I really am.”

Not everyone in the Palmetto State will be OK with that. But what you think of Dawn Staley is none of her business. Coaching 38 games and winning them all, that’s not a matter of opinion.