Dawn Staley doubles down on South Carolina's muted live TV response to NCAA seeding

Despite how the selection committee saw it, Dawn Staley believes South Carolina deserved the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. That honor instead went to UCLA, though the Gamecocks were still one of the four No. 1 seeds in the bracket.

There are plenty of reasons for the committee’s decision. The Bruins had two losses all season compared to three for South Carolina, which they also defeated head-to-head in the nonconference. Both teams won their respective conference tournaments.

Many fans noted that the Gamecocks didn’t appear to react much as they were announced as a No. 1 seed during the selection show on ESPN. Staley explained why and also vouched for her team’s right to be the top overall seed.

“I looked back and I saw that they didn’t react,” she said during an interview with Holly Rowe on ESPN2. “I don’t even think they knew they were on television. So once they were, they played it cool.

“I’m a little bit surprised, because we manufactured our schedule to put ourselves in position to be the No. 1 overall seed. I do think if you do the blind test and you put our resume against any other team in the field, I think you’ll pick us. That’s just plain and simple.”

It marked the first time since 2021 that South Carolina did not receive the No. 1 overall seed. Last year, the Gamecocks went undefeated on their way to claiming their third national title under Staley.

This year, South Carolina enters March Madness as the No. 2-ranked team in the NET rankings, fueled by a 16-3 record in Quadrant 1 games. UCLA, meanwhile, is No. 4 in the NET with a 13-2 mark in Q1 matchups.

Aside from the Bruins beating the Gamecocks head-to-head, committee chair Derita Dawkins also pointed to a 29-point loss to Connecticut for the reason behind the rankings. But Staley believes the overall strength of schedule should have spoke for itself.

“I’m gonna speak on it tonight and then it’s not gonna be a motivation for us moving forward,” she said. “It’s hard enough to win a national championship. We don’t need a chip on our shoulder. We do need to voice it. I do need to voice the fact that we put a schedule together.

“We got the most quad 1 wins and if having more quad 1 wins doesn’t supersede some of the hiccups we had during the season, I don’t know what will. So for us, maybe we don’t put ourselves in a position where we have hiccups so they don’t have to lower the standard for us to get a No. 1 overall seed.”

At the end of the day, No. 1 overall seed or not, Dawn Staley andSouth Carolina still finds themselves in a great position to add another championship to their collection. The Gamecocks will open up tournament play against Tennessee Tech on Friday.