Dawn Staley has built a legacy at South Carolina, establishing herself as one of the greatest college basketball coaches. She has been with the Gamecocks since 2008 and has won the NCAA championship three times (2017, 2022, and 2024). Losing doesn’t come naturally to Staley, and whenever South Carolina loses, it is a rather rare occurrence.
The Gamecocks have lost just three games all season, and two of them came against Vic Schaefer’s Texas Longhorns. The two teams were 1-1 heading into their meeting in the SEC Championship. Texas emerged victorious, winning 78-61, as Madison Booker led the team with 18 points.
Staley, obviously disappointed, still managed to find a silver lining in the loss. She said after the game that maybe this loss would be a blessing in disguise. She recalled how the last time South Carolina lost the SEC championship, the Gamecocks went on to win the NCAA title.
WNBA legend Candace Parker and Staley’s former player Aliyah Boston discussed the Gamecocks’ loss and the coach’s reaction. They compared Staley with late Tennessee legend Pat Summitt.
“My junior year, we thought we were the best. We had ran through the SEC. We were undefeated in the regular season, and then we ran into LSU in the semi-finals, and we got destroyed. But then it happens to fall where the two weeks before the NCAA tournament is spring break, and that’s right after the SEC tournament. So boy, we practiced, and we got better, and we ran, and Pat was pi**d,” Parker recalled on the post moves show.
Boston replied:
“That’s when we lost Kentucky, that’s how it was for us. We didn’t go home. We couldn’t do anything right. The starters got kicked off the court multiple times. All we did was run. She was like, ‘You guys, the next time you lose, you’re going home. The next time you lose, you’re going home for good for the rest of the season.’ That was basically what she just kept saying. And we spent the entire time on the court.”
Candace Parker Recalls Pat Summitt’s Intensity and Ruthlessness
Candace Parker and Aliyah Boston continued with their discussion about Pat Summitt, who was the Tennessee Lady Volunteers’ head coach from 1974 to 2012.
Candace Parker recalled how Pat was mocking her players and asking them if they could even play basketball. Parker said the team had put in everything they had the entire season, and that LSU had just caught them on a bad day, and Tennessee lost. But this was no excuse for Pat as she was always relentless in her approach.
Candace said:
“I remember Sylvia Foul’s pump fake. I jump in and I fell on my back and got the air knocked out of me. I had like four points in that game. Pat questioned every single thing. ‘Are you a good basketball player? Do you think you can score more than four? We did like the zigzag drill for like an hour. Like you just knew, and every practice was like 4 hours. There were no time constraints because it was a break, so we could practice as long as we wanted. My knee was all swollen. We won the national championship that year, though.”
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