Gamecocks 'Beat The Odds' On Journey Back To The Final Four
It wasn't supposed to happen. South Carolina's women's basketball team had just lost eight total players from last year's Final Four team, including seven seniors or graduate students, five WNBA Draft picks, and their entire starting lineup. With 'the freshies' gone and LSU and Iowa's Caitlin Clark taking the women's college basketball world by storm, the Gamecocks were the preseason ranked 5th team in the country heading into last November. Few thought this team would pick up right where they left off last season, and that's exactly what they did.
With a win over Oregon State on Sunday, Carolina is going back to the Final Four for the fourth straight season, which, when compared to the expectations set on the team before the season began, wasn't lost on Dawn Staley in her postgame presser.
"[I'm] just proud 'cause we beat the odds. The odds said that we shouldn't make it back to the Final Four. [I'm] just proud of our team for believing in themselves. They created a certain level of energy and culture, and they stuck with it, and then they allowed us to coach them; they trusted us to coach team even when it didn't feel good to them personally at different times of the season," Dawn lamented. "Overall, I just think that God has a funny way of dealing with people - For us to lose the way we lost last year and for him to bring us to this point today makes me believe a little bit deeper, and it strengthens my faith in who he is."
Getting back to this team being almost an entirely new group, the basketball legend was asked at one point if they had changed her in any way this season, which led to Staley pointing out their overall attitude and ability to flip the switch when needed, and conveying how it's changed her methods in terms of managing the team.
"This is probably the first time in my career that a team has more stamina in certain areas than I can discipline them for," Dawn said jokingly. "They're loose. They play free, and it's allowed them to kinda police themselves and to hold each other accountable. In one regard, I relinquish that, and the [in the] other regard, they're taking care of it, but it's just different than I'm used to. So I give in to allow them to be themselves."
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