Tag: Dawn Staley

Why Dawn Staley and South Carolina’s stunning loss to UCLA isn’t concerning … yet

R-E-L-A-X.

On Sunday, South Carolina’s 43-game win streak came tumbling down, and the murmurs will start about whether this is the “end of an era” for head coach Dawn Staley and her squad. However, let’s not do that.

Watching UCLA steamroll South Carolina, it’s pretty easy to have a knee-jerk reaction and say, “Pack it up, Gamecocks. You’re done.” But, if you’ve been paying attention, this was inevitable. From the team’s season opener against Michigan until now, South Carolina has been skating along.

The Gamecocks escaped multiple matchups despite substandard shooting and being bullied by buckets from all over the court. Most teams didn’t have enough to compete with the Gamecocks down the stretch of games, and South Carolina’s signature pesky defense usually saved them. However, UCLA was different. As Dawn Staley said after Sunday’s shellacking, “We ran into a buzz saw today.”

However, I would be more concerned if this was March. It’s November, and the team has played just six games with a tweaked roster.

It must be considered that South Carolina is still working through the loss of former center Kamilla Cardoso and how to replace her defensive presence, ability to rebound, and paint production. You can’t readily recreate 6-foot-seven with 14 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks per game. Sania Feagin and Chloe Kitts are stellar, but they aren’t Cardoso.

Also, while South Carolina’s shooting woes have also extended across the team, plaguing standouts like Raven Johnson and Te-Hina Paopao (and fans are starting to question what’s also happening with MiLaysia Fulwiley), this is Dawn Staley we’re talking about. She’s one of the best coaches in college basketball and the queen of adjustments. Staley will figure it out.

If she doesn’t, I’ll happily be wrong. Feel free to yell and scream at me for my horrid analysis. But this isn’t concerning…yet.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 tag=421393237]

Dawn Staley and South Carolina dare anyone to stop them with ‘repeat tour’ talk

“Let’s go! Let’s go!”

Dawn Staley and the South Carolina women’s basketball team put the women’s college basketball world on notice Saturday.

Staley and her crew were “in the building,” as the kids say, for College GameDay shenanigans and to be honored on the field ahead of a wild matchup with LSU. While chatting with the GameDay staff, Staley talked about the upcoming season and some of her team’s goals, including running it back with the national championship trophy.

Despite losing a pivotal player in the team’s starting lineup, like Kamilla Cardoso, to the WNBA, Staley says the goal remains the same. With the help of guard Raven Johnson, here’s what she told fans and anyone watching the broadcast (See the clip below and the 1:15 mark of the YouTube video):

“[I’m] excited for this group, for this team to — what do we call it, Raven? — the repeat tour. Let’s go! Let’s go!”

https://twitter.com/espnW/status/1834981602033590609

Sending thoughts and good vibes to the women’s college basketball field. May the odds be ever in your favor.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 tag=421393237]

South Carolina women’s basketball player Ashlyn Watkins arrested: Everything we know

Watkins was charged with assault and battery in the first degree and kidnapping.

South Carolina women’s basketball player Ashlyn Watkins was arrested and charged with assault and battery in the first degree and kidnapping on Saturday morning, according to Richland County court records reviewed by For The Win.

Watkins posted a $30,000 bond and was instructed by the court to have “no direct or indirect contact with the victim,” and to stay at least 1,000 yards away from the alleged victim’s home, work, school and place of worship. The court did grant Watkins – a 6-foot-3 junior who played a key role on the Gamecocks’ undefeated national championship-winning team this past winter – permission to travel out of state for games and practice.

According to The State and the Post & Courier newspapers, South Carolina has a policy in which an automatic suspension is triggered whenever an athlete is arrested.

Court records show that Watkins is set to appear in court again on Oct. 25, 2024, just days before the Gamecocks open their title defense in Las Vegas, Nevada, against Michigan on Nov. 4.

Here’s what we know and what we don’t know.

What is South Carolina saying?

So far, as of Saturday afternoon, not much. A spokesperson for the university told the State newspaper they are “aware of the situation and continuing to gather information.” The university gave a similar statement to ESPN.

Gamecocks’ coach Dawn Staley, known to be active on social media, has yet to make a comment through her own channels or the university.

What other details are in police documents?

According to warrants filed by the University of South Carolina Police Department that were obtained by the State newspaper and TV station WLTX, Watkins is accused of “forcefully grabbing (the victim’s) face, pulling her by her arms, and pushing her” and grabbing “the victim’s head and forced her to walk down the hall, thus controlling her movement while preventing her from leaving.”

The alleged victim, according to the warrant, got away from Watkins and pulled a fire alarm, prompting police to arrive. The victim was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

According to the Post & Courier, the incident occurred at 650 Lincoln Street which is a student housing residence where all Gamecocks basketball players live.

What don’t we know?

We don’t yet know if Watkins will be suspended, kicked off the team or face any punishment at all from her arrest and the allegations that prompted it. We also don’t know what sort of relationship Watkins had with the victim or who the victim is.

Who is Ashlyn Watkins?

A forward for the South Carolina women’s basketball team, Watkins played an integral role in helping the Gamecocks go undefeated in the 2023-24 season, which concluded with them winning their third national championship, beating Caitlin Clark and Iowa in Cleveland, Ohio. Watkins’ play was incredibly crucial in the Final Four, where she grabbed a career-high 20 rebounds and scored eight points in a win over N.C. State.

Watkins averaged 9.2 points and 7.4 rebounds in 20.5 minutes per game as a sophomore and was due for an even bigger role this year with former frontcourt mate Kamilla Cardoso leaving South Carolina for the WNBA.

She played her high school basketball at Columbia, South Carolina’s Cardinal Newman School where she became the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year in 2022 and rose to No. 12 on ESPN’s recruiting rankings.

Dawn Staley’s heart was so full after watching A’ja Wilson and Kamilla Cardoso clash during Aces-Sky

Dawn Staley was overjoyed watching two of her former players battle.

While everyone else had their minds positively blown by a motivated A’ja Wilson one-upping Chennedy Carter with an absurd game-winner, Dawn Staley was just a proud coach watching the Las Vegas Aces and Chicago Sky square off.

The South Carolina legend has, of course, established the best program in women’s college basketball. Two of her best players in recent years have been Wilson (the No. 1 overall selection in 2018) and 2024 No. 3 overall pick Kamilla Cardoso.

Well, conveniently, Sunday afternoon’s thriller pitted Wilson in a heated paint matchup against Cardoso.

Even while Wilson is the current MVP favorite, the rookie Cardoso more than held her own with five blocks, as she really made Wilson earn every point en route to an 8-of-28 shooting performance (28 percent!). From start to finish, Staley loved watching every second as she beamed with pride for two of her finer pupils after the game:

A full co-sign to Staley’s thoughts. South Carolina basketball did not lose Sunday, and the WNBA product continues to be formidable and edge-of-your-seat in every single game.

Here’s to watching Wilson and Cardoso clash in remarkable battles for years to come.

A Charlotte Sting revival isn’t happening anytime soon amid WNBA expansion

The new ownership group of the Charlotte Hornets doesn’t seem interested in bringing a WNBA team back to the Queen City.

The WNBA – and women’s basketball as a sport – is experiencing a tremendous period of growth right now. In the college game, the women’s national championship game between Iowa and South Carolina drew a record 18.9 million viewers, topping the men’s title game by about four million.

Tickets to the WNBA Draft sold out within minutes, arenas are being filled at an unprecedented rate, and WNBA viewership records are being shattered. And a new league, Unrivaled, is coming online soon too, with stars like Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers already signing up.

Expansion teams are on the way for the WNBA as well, with the Golden State Valkyries launching next season and a team in Toronto coming in 2026. Expansion is likely to continue for the WNBA through 2028, with commissioner Cathy Engelbert previously saying that she wants 18 teams in the league by then.

Where will the WNBA go next? It’s unclear. Nashville, Philadelphia, Denver and other cities have all been discussed and debated as potential options.

But it’s beginning to seem less likely that the WNBA will return to the city of Charlotte, North Carolina.

In an interview with the Charlotte Observer, the new President of the Charlotte Hornets, Shelly Cayette-Weston said “we are not in current conversations to bring a team here,” when asked about the WNBA.

She added:

“We are not currently not looking to bring a team here. But you can know that for us, we absolutely support the women’s game, the WNBA and we’ll continue those conversations as they arise… There’s so much demand for getting a WNBA franchise that it’s actually really competitive right now. So the decision is not just (wanting to) get it. There is a long line in waiting for the next franchise that’s going to be awarded by the league, which is a great thing.”

In the past year, Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall became controlling owners of the Hornets, buying Michael Jordan’s majority shares.

The Charlotte Sting were one of the WNBA’s original eight franchises when the league launched in 1997. The team had some great players – like Dawn Staley, Andrea Stinson, Tracy Reid, Charlotte Smith and Vicky Bullett – and went to the playoffs six times, making the Finals in 2001 when they were coached by Anne Donovan.

But the future of the team fell into limbo when the Hornets relocated to New Orleans in 2002. Soon after, Robert Johnson was announced as the owner of a new expansion NBA franchise in Charlotte and he bought the Sting too. Citing low attendance and loss in revenue, Johnson’s ownership group attempted to sell the Sting to a group in Kansas City in 2006, which would’ve saw the franchise relocate. The deal fell apart and Johnson relinquished control of the team to the WNBA. By January 2007, the team had folded, its players sent to other squads in a dispersal draft.

Despite the departure of the Sting, women’s basketball remains incredibly popular in North Carolina, which led some to believe that a return of the WNBA to the Tar Heel State was possible.

 

N.C. State, for example, has already sold out its season tickets in Raleigh’s Reynolds Coliseum for the upcoming season and averaged north of 5,200 fans per game last year. In Greensboro, the ACC said that 67,081 people attended games for its 2024 women’s basketball tournament across five days at the Greensboro Coliseum, which is the highest total attendance the tournament has drawn since 2009.

And in Charlotte last year, an announced crowd of 15,196 fans came to the Spectrum Center to watch Virginia Tech vs. Iowa in the Ally Tip-Off, which broke the record for the highest attended egular season women’s college basketball in the state, surpassing the mark of 12,722 set in 2009 when UNC-Chapel Hill hosted UConn at the Dean Smith Center.

That game was put on by the Charlotte Sports Foundation, and they’re running it back this year with a doubleheader of women’s college games as Virginia Tech will play Iowa again, and N.C. State and South Carolina will have a rematch of their Final Four clash. Miller Yoho, the Director of Communications and Marketing at the Charlotte Sports Foundation, said “It’s common sense to invest in women’s sports.”

But without the involvement or endorsement of the Hornets, bringing the WNBA back to Charlotte seems like unlikely.

Dawn Staley admitted Caitlin Clark’s recent stellar WNBA play might have given her a spot in the Olympics

Kudos to Dawn Staley for her honesty and leadership here.

At the time, Caitlin Clark’s omission from the Paris Olympics USA women’s basketball roster was the snub heard around the world. (That is unless you have different ideas about what Team USA is supposed to represent.) After the Indiana Fever superstar’s recent rampage through the WNBA over the last month, she’s started to turn heads.

That apparently also applies to the USA Basketball committee.

In an interview with Mike Tirico on Sunday, Staley admitted that Clark’s string of dominance lately has folks with USA basketball seemingly reconsidering whether they made the right decision to leave her off the Olympic team.

While Staley didn’t outright say anyone made a mistake, her usage of “high consideration” makes it seem apparent she’s implying Clark probably would’ve been on the roster if they had seen her dominate like this earlier:

You know what? Shoutout to Dawn Staley.

This is what real leaders do. They don’t pout. They don’t react in defiance to criticism (though much of it felt unwarranted). They let the game do the talking and take accountability and responsibility for their actions in the event that new eye-opening information has shifted the paradigm for a key team decision.

In this case, Clark’s dominance pushed Staley to imply that she was an Olympics-worthy player on national television. It takes nerve to even suggest that you might have been wrong on such a large platform.

There’s a reason everyone rightfully respects Staley so much.

Clark didn’t make the Olympics this time. In hindsight, it might have been a huge mistake. But Team USA is likely still going to win gold running away, and 2028 will be around before we know it.

With candid comments like this from Staley, all the controversy should be water under the bridge.

Dawn Staley thinks Angel Reese currently deserves Rookie of the Year over Caitlin Clark

Dawn Staley thinks Angel Reese is currently leading the WNBA Rookie of the Year race.

South Carolina coach [autotag]Dawn Staley[/autotag] has quite a bit of familiarity with both [autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag] and [autotag]Caitlin Clark[/autotag].

Her Gamecocks teams faced the former three times, including the SEC Championship Game this past season, and they faced the latter in back-to-back Final Fours including a national title game victory this past season.

Staley is uniquely qualified to discuss the growing rivalry between the two players, who are the clear favorites at this point to win Rookie of the Year. While Clark is seen as the leader in the clubhouse, Reese is closing the gap with her still-active WNBA record double-double streak.

Speaking with TMZ, Staley said she would give the Rookie of the Year nod to Reese at the moment, though she acknowledged there’s a lot of basketball yet to be played and Clark won’t go down without a fight.

“They both are having great years. Don’t get me wrong,” Staley said. “If I had to pick a Rookie of the Year at this time, today, it’s Angel. Not a doubt. I mean, what she’s been able to do with the double-doubles. But listen, the season is halfway through. And Caitlin is coming. Oh, oh, Caitlin is coming. If I had to pick today it’s Angel. I’ll say this, whatever team makes the playoff, that’s our Rookie of the Year.”

The race will likely remain heated until the end of the season, but the more records Reese continues to set, the better her chances will be — especially if she can help lead the Chicago Sky to the playoffs.

Contact/Follow us @LSUTigersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Louisiana State news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Tyler to continue the conversation on Twitter: @TylerNettuno

Dawn Staley delivered a powerful ESPYs speech and fans were in awe

Dawn Staley delivered a powerful speech during the 2024 ESPYs.

South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley delivered a powerful speech on Thursday night during the 2024 ESPYs.

Accepting the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance for her work as an advocate for those battling cancer, Staley talked about how much the honor meant to her and praised those who were fighting the horrid disease.

Staley’s speech inspired plenty in the crowd and watching at home, as it’s yet another strong reminder of why she’s such a beloved figure in the sporting world.

The ESPYs always feature plenty of amazing moments that highlight the best of sports, and this wonderful speech from Staley definitely qualified.

Fans were in awe of Staley’s moving speech during the ceremony.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=462925]

Dawn Staley and Barack Obama took an adorable selfie together at this week’s Team USA basketball game

This is so wholesome.

You never know who is going to run into whom at a sporting event, as was the case at Wednesday’s Team USA basketball game against Canada.

Former President Barack Obama and South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley greeted each other at Wednesday’s game, with the two taking an adorable selfie with each other, as was captured by the Fox Sports broadcast.

This was such a wonderful moment that surely happened spontaneously, as Staley and Obama sharing a selfie with each other on the Team USA basketball sideline is just too good a highlight.

Perhaps the Obamas will make a trip to South Carolina some time this season to deliver a motivational talk to the Gamecocks?

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=11490]

Jennie Baranczyk says the SEC will ‘be a dogfight’ every night

The SEC is arguably the toughest women’s basketball conference in the country and Jennie Baranzcyk is excited for the challenge.

The move to the SEC raised the stakes for the entire Oklahoma Athletic Department. While much of the focus has been on the increase in competition for the football program, other teams will be seeing a step up in competition and intensity as well.

The SEC boasts arguably the best women’s basketball conference in the country. South Carolina has become a dominant force in recent years under head coach Dawn Staley. The Gamecocks went undefeated in 2023-2024 to capture their second national championship in the last three years. The one that South Carolina didn’t win in 2022-2023 was taken home by Kim Mulkey and the LSU Tigers, led by superstar forward Angel Reese.

Then there’s the women’s hoops blue blood Tennessee. They’ve been a tournament team, but haven’t found the same level of success they enjoyed under the legendary Pat Summitt.

And that’s what the Sooners will have to contend with when they enter the SEC, and Oklahoma women’s basketball head coach [autotag]Jennie Baranczyk[/autotag] is aware of the challenge facing her squad.

“I think you’re looking forward to playing everybody,” Baranczyk shared with SEC Now on Monday. “Because, honestly, I think every night it’s a dogfight every night, you know, and it’s new. It’s new to us. I mean, I know we’re new to everybody, but there’s no familiarity and so that’s going to be really fun in itself, especially that first year or two.”

Eight SEC programs made the Women’s NCAA tournament last season. Five of the eight made it to the round of 32 and the Gamecocks and LSU made it to the elite eight.

As tough as the conference will be for the Sooners, Oklahoma brings in a talented and experienced team. Under Baranczyk, they’ve made the round of 32 each season and were a few possessions away from beating Indiana and reaching the Sweet 16.

The Sooners made a splash in the transfer portal by adding forward [autotag]Raegan Beers[/autotag] to their Big 12 championship squad from a year ago. And as important as the talent on the floor, the Sooners have the right woman at the helm to guide this team on a deep tournament run.

Baranczyk has done a fantastic job with the Oklahoma women’s basketball program and has them positioned to be a force when they enter the SEC.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow John on X @john9williams.