South Carolina Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley once called out the likes of ESPN for how there were narratives being driven regarding their previous No. 1 ranking. Back in the 2019-20 season, the Gamecocks were ranked as the top team in the nation as they dominated that year’s SEC with a 16-0 record, winning both of the conference’s championships, and finished with an overall record of 32-1.
Back on April of 2022 during a guesting she did for ‘The Breakfast Club’ Power 105.1 FM, Staley was asked about how hard it was to let go of the 2019-20 campaign, given that their No. 1 ranking was being looked down on and ignored by several entities in the college basketball world such as ESPN and the national tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Staley then responded by revealing that she instilled a bold mindset in her players, especially since she said that they felt like they weren’t getting the respect they deserved.
“I mean it was hard to let it go for this very reason, because we were the number one team in the country for the last nine weeks of the season, but you wouldn’t know it because there was a different narrative out there created for other teams that they though should’ve been number one, but they lost. So, and from that, I actually did talk to a couple of ESPN people about, you know, how now that the bottom fell out,” Staley said. (29:01)
“We were the number one team in the country, you didn’t promote our team in that way. And then, they came back, probably 45 minutes after that, you know, I went into that coaching mode, in the coach mode of just bad behavior. So, I had that conversation, it was kind of a, it wasn’t one that could be played on your show, you know that,” she added.
Currently, Staley and the Gamecocks are coming off of a 2024-25 season in which they finished with an overall record of 35-4 (15-1, SEC). They were defeated by the UConn Huskies in the 2025 national championship game by 23 points, 82-59, as they were pursuing back-to-back national titles from their 2024 berth.
Dawn Staley And The South Carolina Gamecocks Won The 2022 NCAA Championship
In fact, Staley was a guest on ‘The Breakfast Club’ as she and the South Carolina Gamecocks were coming off of their 2022 national championship win. Days before her interview, Staley spearheaded the Gamecocks to the program’s second-ever title by defeating the UConn Huskies by 15 points, 64-49, and concluded that year with an overall record of 35-2 (15-1, SEC).
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