Dawn Staley Sees Silver Lining After South Carolina SEC Title Loss to Texas
The South Carolina Gamecocks women's basketball team was handed its third loss of the 2025-26 NCAA season on March 8, when the No. 4-ranked Texas Longhorns beat them in the SEC Championship game by a score of 78-61.
Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley is usually not one to call her team out after losses, especially when her team didn't quit on the court. And nobody can say that South Carolina quit against Texas, despite never really being in the game after falling to a 14-0 deficit in the first quarter.
In fact, Staley seemed to be optimistic about what the loss would provide her squad when speaking with the media postgame.
Dawn Staley Sees Positives After South Carolina SEC Championship Defeat
When asked about her message to the Gamecocks' roster in the locker room, Staley said, “Our team knows we didn’t play our best basketball. Not nearly what we’re capable of doing. And I told them that the last time we lost in this situation [in 2022], we won a national championship. So you’ve got to think about that. It might be the very thing this team needs. It’s not what I would think, yesterday, coming in today," per a video from Chaz R. Frazier of ABC Columbia.
"But now that we’re here and it’s a reality, you search for things that have a connection that can give your team what it needs to make this run for a national championship. I do think we have enough in the room to do that. We’ll rest and recoup at the end of the week, and start that journey," she added.
Dawn Staley on the message she shared with her team following a tough loss to #Texas:
— Chaz R Frazier (@Chazf_tv) March 8, 2026
"I told them the last time we loss in this situation, we won the National Championship...It might be the very thing this team needs."@abc_columbia - #Gamecocks pic.twitter.com/zLgc4yfWT0
Staley expanded on this media when speaking to media after her official postgame presser ended.
"We're a really good basketball team. Like, we've been a great basketball team all season long. The record says it. And what I want to take from it is [that] we actually got better. Ali [Tournebize] gave us something that ignited in her. I think she's gonna help us down the stretch," Staley said, per an X post from Julia Westerman of WIS News 10.
"I think our bench and our depth got stronger, being in this situation," she added.
Dawn Staley reminded her players about what happened the last time South Carolina lost the SEC Championship - they won a national championship.
— Julia Westerman (@JuliaWesterman) March 8, 2026
I asked Staley about the opportunity this team has to learn and grow from this loss: "We actually got better." pic.twitter.com/O5SyNST655
Staley is clearly not panicking about this loss to Texas, despite it being the second defeat the Longhorns have handed the Gamecocks this season.
Given Staley and South Carolina's pedigree, it's easy to imagine they'll bounce back in a big way during the NCAA Tournament.
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.
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