The South Carolina Gamecocks clashed with the Iowa Hawkeyes in one of the biggest games of college basketball this season and emerged victorious. The Gamecocks had an undefeated season which finally culminated in them winning the title. The game was tuned in by 18.7 million fans as the Gamecocks successfully stopped the NCAA Queen Caitlin Clark in her tracks. The focus on that night quickly shifted from Clark to the Gamecocks’ head coach Dawn Staley, who won her third title as a coach this season. 

Staley was asked about her memories of the final night in an exclusive interview with Slam and the 54-year-old recollected how she was untroubled by Clark. This came as a surprise for NCAA fans since they always saw Clark as a major threat to South Carolina’s dreams.

“Before the national championship game, they were talking major cash ish. The coaches’ locker room is connected to the big locker room, and we don’t go in there [to] let them have their space. I’m too close to the situation, I don’t want to hear them, [but] they’re like, We’re going to kick their A, and I’m like, Lord, they don’t know what they don’t know. Either we’re going to get blown out, or we’re going to blow somebody out because they were talking. And I know they’re hyping themselves up, but as coaches, you know, we gotta go out there and face Caitlin [Clark] and them. Like, they got themselves here, they got momentum,” Staley answered in the interview conducted by Slam.

Staley spilled the inside story when questioned about the reason behind her undefeated success. According to her, from the locker room chats, she knew that it was a situation of extremes. Either Staley’s squad would blast off in the Finale or fall prey to Clark’s supremacy. 

“As coaches, too, we would ask each other, You drinking the Kool-Aid? We would literally ask each other. So, for the most part we were like, Nah, we ain’t drinking it. Towards the end of the year, we asked, How about now? You drinking the Kool-Aid? I’m like, I’m sippin’. I ain’t taking a big gulp, but I’m sippin’. Because they’re putting it on display. I think, just overall as I reflect, it was a super cool journey and environment to be around them. They just played loose. I told this to a friend, I said, “They played free.”…So, I think that was really kind of cool for them to take us coaches down their journey. It’s usually, like, our journey—how we want to direct them and guide them. Nah. Nah, we got on their train and we rode their coattails,” Staley continued.

Notably, during the night of the Finale, Staley employed her masterclass tactics. She put Raven Johnson to guard Clark. The result of which was that Clark who had smashed 18 points in the first quarter could only pot 3 points in the next. Johnson also nabbed three steals and the Hawkeyes trailed by a margin of 46-49 against the Gamecocks at halftime.

Overall, Clark potted 30 points and the Gamecocks won by an 87-75 margin. Therefore, it certainly looks like the players took the onus and gave their best. Therefore, her team guided Staley instead of Staley guiding them which was new to her in her 24 years of coaching. Staley was also kind enough to give other teams hope.

Dawn Staley gives hope to other teams

Reflecting on her success, Staley further added and rather motivated other teams to look at them as an inspiration and do the unfathomable. The Pennsylvania-born enunciated that they looked like a regular team at the beginning of the season and weren’t expected to win the Championship title. Notably, at the beginning of the season, much of the spotlight was on the Louisiana State University Lady Tigers and the Iowa Hawkeyes.

“I want to share the good, the bad, the ugly but also the likelihood of someone else doing what we did—I want to give them hope, because we didn’t look like a national championship team at the beginning of the season. We looked like most of the teams in the country, so we’re relatable to most of the teams. If we could do it, anybody could do it,” Staley added.

Every coach would have wished to get a similar batch as Staley did that guided her to victory. Furthermore, Staley being unafraid of Clark’s dominance only goes on to show how good a team she had. Hopefully, others will use her example as an inspiration.

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