South Carolina did what no other team could this season: beat UConn. The Gamecocks beat UConn 62-48 in the Final Four. They won the rebounding battle, outscored UConn in the paint, held Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd to a total of 20 points on 7-31 shooting from the field, and effectively ended the latter’s college career.
Of course, everyone wants to win the Final Four and make it to the National Championship because that’s what the entire season is about, but Dawn Staley had some extra motivation from an unlikely source: Caitlin Clark.
“I’m haunted by 2023,” Staley said in the postgame media availability. “I’m haunted by that particular Final Four because of the players that we had and the season that we were having, and it got upended, and I never got a chance to coach the freshies anymore. We won it the following year, but that particular group was pretty special. I’m still haunted by it, and, for me, if we ever get the opportunity to be in that position again, which we were today, we’re going to lay it on the line, okay? We’re going to lay it on the line, try to figure out ways in which to win the game, and I thought our kids locked in today.”
Caitlin Clark ended the Gamecocks’ season in 2023
South Carolina was on a run not unlike the one they just ended for UConn in 2023. They came into the Final Four with an undefeated record and a senior on her way to becoming the number-one pick in the WNBA Draft.
Their run through the tournament was abruptly ended by Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes. Clark scored 41 points on 15-31 shooting to lead her team to a 77-73 win.
With that win, she also put a brutal end to the college careers of five South Carolina players. Aliyah Boston, who is now Clark’s co-star in Indiana, Zia Cooke, Laeticia Amihere, Brea Beal, and Victaria Sexton were all seniors.
Dawn Staley is in the midst of an impressive run
Staley has found a ton of success as South Carolina’s head coach, winning the national championship she never got as a player in 2017 and adding two more in 2022 and 2024.
Since the 2020-21 season, there hasn’t been a Final Four without Staley and the Gamecocks. South Carolina’s meeting with UCLA on Sunday will be the program’s fourth national championship game in the last five years.
Geno Auriemma may be the winningest coach in college basketball, but Staley is setting her own standard for excellence.