For the third time in four years, head coach Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks will play for the national championship title. Yet no one seems to be talking about them.
South Carolina will take on the UConn Huskies in Sunday’s championship game. Despite the fact that the Gamecocks have an opportunity to claim back-to-back titles, hype for the game is mostly centered on UConn superstar Paige Bueckers — the presumed No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft.
The situation is similar to last year’s, when South Carolina played Iowa in the Natty, and media coverage focused almost entirely on Caitlin Clark.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Staley gave both Bueckers and Clark their props but made it clear that her players deserve some recognition, too.
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“Sometimes we create these narratives about great players — Caitlin was one of them; Paige is one of them right now — and we tend to forget the narrative about what our kids have been able to do, going for their third in four years,” Staley told reporters.
“There’s a sentimental narrative about Paige. A great freakin’ player. Anybody would start their franchise with Paige because she’s a winner. … But when you put a narrative out there, everybody sees that, and it puts us at a disadvantage, whether you want to believe so or not. Officials see it. It’s all over TikTok. It’s all over SportsCenter. It’s all over all of that.”
South Carolina defeated Clark’s Iowa team to win the championship and to cap off a historic, undefeated season in 2024. Clark, of course, left a lasting legacy on the women’s collegiate game, but she never won a national title.
“I just want to put it out there. I can’t not address it because it’s happening,” Staley said. “It happened to us last year. Everything was about Caitlin Clark and her legacy and her ability to win a national championship. Yet we were coming into this thing undefeated, doing something that’s unprecedented at the time. We find ourselves back here in a similar situation.”
Dawn Staley Takes Aim At ESPN
Following Saturday’s press conference, ESPN published an article containing the above quotes. In a social media post, the network’s women’s hoops account wrote, “Dawn Staley says narrative around Paige Bueckers and her quest to win a title has overshadowed South Carolina’s feats.”
Staley wasn’t happy about that. In a response on her own X account, the Hall of Famer quoted the article and wrote, “LIES! Fix your headline please!”
As much as I love a good opportunity to dunk on ESPN, I’m not sure what part of this headline is a “lie.” That is exactly the sentiment Staley expressed ahead of Sunday’s title game — that everyone is talking about Bueckers and not giving South Carolina players their well-deserved credit as well.
She was highly complimentary and respectful of Bueckers while simply claiming that her own players deserve their flowers from the media, too. And she’s not wrong.
That’s exactly what you said, Dawn. Own it.
Meanwhile, Bueckers herself gave her opponents plenty of credit for their accomplishments over the past several years.
“Sustained excellence is extremely hard, especially with the parity in women’s college basketball today,” Bueckers told reporters on Saturday.
“So for them to continue to get back to this level, we know as players it’s extremely hard to get here. And you never want to take it for granted, but it speaks to the discipline, the attention to detail, and the demanded excellence that Coach Dawn has for her players. And we have great respect for her and the entire program.”
UConn and South Carolina tip off Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on ABC and ESPN.
