South Carolina Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley gave a bold take on the current 2025 WNBA MVP race. On Saturday, Aug. 16, @weneedtotalk on Instagram uploaded a clip of Staley during a recent CBS Sports podcast, where she was asked about which team she is eyeing down the final stretch of the current WNBA campaign.
For Staley, she is staying loyal to one of her former collegiate hoops stars and now three-time league MVP in Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson. The 55-year-old shared that she feels that her team is ascending due to her recent play, as she may have overtaken Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier in the MVP conversation already.
“The Aces are coming, they are. They the hottest team. The Aces are coming behind the play of…I think she’s it, I think she’s ahead of Phee right now. A’ja Wilson, she’s moved in front of Phee in the MVP Race. That’s it, done. Show’s over,” Staley claimed.
View this post on Instagram
Wilson is currently in her eighth year in the league, wherein she is averaging 22.3 points, 10.0 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.6 steals and 2.1 blocks per contest. She has helped bring the Aces to an overall record of 20-14 thus far, good for the second seed in the Western Conference.
Dawn Staley adds two more names to the 2025 WNBA regular season MVP race
@weneedtotalk Coach Staley is adding two more names to her list for the #MVP conversation 👀 #wnba #indianafever #basketball ♬ original sound – We Need To Talk
Later on in the same broadcast by CBS Sports, @weneedtotalk on TikTok then posted another clip of South Carolina Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley. This time around, the tenured tactician added two more names to the current 2025 WNBA MVP Race: Indiana Fever standouts Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston, the latter of whom was one of Staley’s star products from South Carolina.
“You got to talk about Kelsey Mitchell, right? You got to talk about Aliyah Boston, right? And in the same breath, what does that do to the league? If you have an MVP on the Indiana Fever and it’s not Caitlin Clark,” Staley said. (0:25)
Staley was then asked once again if she thinks that both Mitchell and Boston deserve to be in this year’s regular-season MVP conversation, to which she reasserted, saying:
“I do, I do. If we’re just strictly talking about, you know, their contributions I mean look what they’ve done this year…You take any one of them off their team, they’re impacted in a big way.” (1:20)
Staley will now shift her focus towards the current crop of Gamecocks as they look to seek vengeance in the 2025-26 season after losing out on back-to-back national titles in the 2025 NCAA tournament. South Carolina has won two of the last five national titles, three overall, and will now pursue a third one in the decade.
Read More: Former Gamecock Aliyah Boston Shares Hilarious Pregame Moments With Dawn Staley During CBS Interview
College Sports Network has you covered with the latest news, analysis, insights, and trending stories in college football, men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball, and college baseball!
