Starring Caitlin Clark, Kamilla Cardoso and Kiki Rice, Dawn Staley Reflects on Docuseries and Women Sports

Caitlin Clark and her peers have taken women’s sports to another level. When you have 18.7 million people tuning to the NCAA women’s Finale in comparison to 14.8 million people watching the men’s Finale, one knows that women’s basketball has arrived. In a recent development, ESPN+ launched a series featuring NCAA sensations such as Caitlin Clark, Kamilla Cardoso and Kiki Rice. The South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley was present during its premiere and gave her take on women’s basketball and her future plans.

Directed by Peyton Manning, the “Full Court Press” series premiered at Indianapolis. The four-part series documents the journey of the NCAA stars. Staley was present at its premiere and spoke to Wish TV’s correspondent. And her replies gave an insight into the progress of women’s sports.

Dawn Staley lauds women’s sports

Staley was present at the red-carpet event and interacted with Wish TV’s correspondent. A video of the same was uploaded on YouTube that garnered a lot of attention. Staley looked happy with how women’s sports has gone about in the last few years and remarked, “Yeah, I think we should have been… We should have been here a long time ago. Yes, seriously. I saw this a long, long , long time ago. But now I think we’re at a place where… I mean it was buildup. It was a buildup you know now… You know I think… You almost equate it to like some… some traffic in New York City where it’s bottleneck. So we’re.. We’re there now. Where we take it is going to be on the decision-makers because we have the talent in our game. We have the product in our game and we must cater to showcase it.”

Notably, the first NCAA tournament was held in 1982, and subsequently, the basketball authorities conceived the WNBA in 1997. The significant difference in years reflects the mindset of the authorities and the audiences who didn’t give that much attention to women’s sports. It only goes to show that people weren’t much excited about it, but as Staley quotes the initial years were a buildup.

On the other hand, the first NCAA men’s basketball tournament was held in 1939. But since the emergence of Clark, Rice, and Cardoso, the viewership landscape has changed a lot. Fans now regard Clark, Rice, and Cardoso as celebrities, who are receiving attention from all corners. The marketability of women athletes has increased with some of them even signing sneaker deals with reputed companies, something which was only reserved for male basketball athletes in the past. And this recent docu-series is a testament to the same. Staley also took the moment to reveal her future plans.

Dawn Staley celebrating all the way

Staley revealed her plans for the upcoming season. She was quick to state that she would “enjoy the season that we just had.” Staley’s team won the NCAA tournament with a clean record. The 54-year-old also remarked that “Now that we won, we gonna celebrate.” For the record, Staley had a 36-1 record in 2022-23 and the match they lost against the Iowa Hawkeyes ousted them. This year Staley had an undefeated record and co-incidentally won the finals against the Hawkeyes.

Fans would be hoping that much like Clark, Rice, and Cardoso’s on-court dominance, the docu-series also turns out to be a blockbuster. And perhaps the women’s sports will be progressing in the same fashion that Staley elaborated while she takes some time off.