Dawn Staley Addresses MiLaysia Fulwiley's Limited Minutes in South Carolina NCAA Win
The No. 1 seeded South Carolina Gamecocks advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the 2025 NCAA Tournament after their 64-53 win over the No. 9 seeded Indiana Hoosiers on March 23.
Given how the Gamecocks' roster is constructed this season, it has become common for them to get scoring from several different players instead of relying on one great player to get most of their buckets. This means that any player could lead the team in scoring on any given day, and also means the minutes allocated to players are typically dispersed depending on how they're playing in any given game.
On Sunday, sophomore superstar MiLaysia Fulwiley only scored 3 points in 10 minutes played, which was the third-least amount of minutes for any South Carolina player and the third-fewest minutes she has played all season.
Dawn Staley addressed this directly when speaking with the media after Sunday's game.
"No, no," Staley said after being asked whether anything was going on with Fulwiley in the game. "I thought she got off to a slow start, then it was hard. We had good combinations in and usually it's Fulwiley out there. It just didn't happen today.
"I thought she handled it well. She wants to play, we need her to play, we need her to play well and it wasn't anything besides just [other] units out there playing better," Staley continued.
Dawn Staley on MiLaysia Fulwiley not playing as many minutes vs Indiana.
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Therefore, it sounds like fans can expect to see more of Fulwiley during the Gamecocks' Sweet Sixteen game against either Alabama or Maryland next weekend.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.