Keepin' The Ball Rolling: A Look At What Was The #1 Recruiting Class in the Nation

Last Friday night as Mikiah Herbert Harrigan and Tyasha Harris heard their names called during the first round it was not only a testament to their hard work and dedication as athletes, but to what the University of South Carolina’s women’s basketball program has become.

Head coach Dawn Staley has shown she can develop pro level talent as the Gamecocks have now sent nine players in the first round of the draft and 12 to the WNBA overall.

As the Gamecocks become a mainstay in women’s college basketball, Staley and her coaching staff have proven they can do something equally important in recruiting pro level talent.

This past season Staley pulled off something that none of the other women’s basketball bluebloods could do and that’s bring in the number one recruiting class in the nation.

She started by first recruiting assistant coach Jolette Law, who was at Tennessee previously before coming to South Carolina right after the Gamecocks won the national championship in 2017.

“I was in Jamaica when I got the phone call from Dawn Staley,” Law said. “I’m on the beach trying to relax and I said ‘Dawn Staley? What is she calling me for?’ and I said well let me answer, it’s probably about a kid.”

“I thought she was calling about a player and she say’s ‘Jo you ready to come home?’ I said execuse me?” Law recalls. “She said ‘I got a couple candidates for a position, you’re high on my list and I’m only going to look at a few and I just want to know if you’re interested and ready to come home.’”

Law said that while her be able to be near her mother at a time she needed her most played a large part in the decision, knowing what Staley’s about as a coach ultimately sold her.

“Dawn is a real person,” Law said. “She’s not fake, she’s not phony, she keeps it real. I respect that, 100 percent. Good bad or indifferent, she’s real. She has an ability to connect with young people, especially if they’re driven, especially if they’re competitive, especially if they are about winning and doing things the right way.”

This led to the recruiting of top players such as Alaina Coates, Tiffany Mitchell, Bianca Cuervas-Moore and of course A’ja Wilson. The challenge then became sustaining that recruiting success.

Enter the 2019 freshman class of Zia Cooke, Brea Beal, Aliyah Boston, Laeticia Amihere and Oliva Thompson.

To find this assortment of players from all across the country, Law said she had to assess what Staley was looking for.

“I just started listening to Dawn and what she wanted and what she needed in players,” she said. “I said basically from what I’ve seen, I need to continue to get you culture kids. She comes up with a motto and a theme each year. I think that year was “We Are” and I just took that slogan and sold that to the kids and told them who we are.”

Law said she sold them on everything from facilities to the dedicated fanbase that has grown exponentially since Staley’s arrival.

“I told them you’re going to be playing in front of a sellout crowd,” Law said. “These fans are like no other.”

And with just about all of them being McDonalds All-American, used to the bright lights, they jumped at the opportunity and throughout the season thrived on the pressure that came with it.

After the program’s first win over UConn, Geno Auriemma said that his Husky freshmen played like freshmen, while South Carolina’s did not. To understand their maturity, that was one of their defining traits throughout the season, you have to understand what it took for them to get to that point.

Aliyah Boston left her home in the U.S. Virgin Islands at the age of 12 to play basketball seriously on the mainland.

Zia Cooke turned down a chance to be closer to home at Ohio State and decided to build with Staley.

Beal, a McDonald’s High School All-American and Thompson the former SCBCA 5A Player of the year were both called on to play completely different roles than in high school. Beal, a prolific scorer, carved her niche as a near-lockdown defender, while Thompson saw few minutes off the bench as a walk-on but was expected to be a marksman when called upon.

Amihere, the Canadian prodigy, suffered a grueling leg injury during her senior year of high school and actually redshirted her freshman year and spent the 2018-2019 season recovering.

.@GamecockWBB's ball movement 💯 pic.twitter.com/DSmIWJhWbY
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) March 8, 2020

Law said it was evident early on that all that the young Gamecocks were determined to make the most of their opportunity.

“Yes I think it started early in preseason,” she said. “They all knew why they came, why they chose the University of South Carolina and like you said, a lot of them sacrificed a lot. But again, the ultimate thing for them was they wanted to win.”

And the collective sacrifices made, brought them all together, according to Law.

“Something happened in presesason when one of the teammates had to do extra running after practice,” she said. “All of them came to support at six o’clock in the morning. That’s when I knew we had something special.”

Law said she’s seen her fair share of top recruiting classes during her career, but she’s never seen one respond to pressure like his one.

“I’ve been around a lot of top three, top five recruiting classes but this group was special. They were really special. They went through things but they were all about getting in the gym to fix it…this was a special group. I’ve never seen a freshman class perform this way.”

The Gamecocks did not get the validation that comes with a national championship, but they have a foundation to be good for years to come. Five-star recruit Eniya Russell joins the team next season and South Carolina hopes to continue staying true to who they are and hopefully raise another banner in the near future.

“I think Dawn deserves to have the best of the best,” Law said. “Not just one year or just have a few players here or there, but have the best of the best.