Dawn Staley shares her thoughts ahead of Sweet 16 matchup with Maryland

Dawn Staley once again has her South Carolina Gamecocks back in the Sweet 16. It’s a familiar place for their women’s basketball program, as they’ve turned into one of the most dominant teams in all of sports over the past several years under her guidance. On Friday evening, the No. 1 seed Gamecocks will square off against No. 4 seed Maryland. She shared her thoughts shortly before tip-off.

“Well, I’m proud that we can have some adverse moments, and we can deal with them in real time. And then on the other side of it, be better because of it. Because of the loss, because of how we dealt with it and then we move on. So, I think our players are growing up. They are maturing. And ultimately, they just want to win,” Staley explained.

She’s getting ready to face a team in Maryland that had their own adversity last game. They battled back from down 17 to come back and win.

“You’ve gotta lock in,” Staley explained. “But teams are good. You’re not gonna play a team that doesn’t belong here that didn’t earn the right to be here. So, if there’s time on the clock, they’re gonna play until the end. And hopefully, our players are understanding of that, because we’ve lost big leads in this tournament last year. So, we have our own familiarity with it. It’s harder said than done, when you’re playing against players that have national championship hopes.”

Staley has built South Carolina women’s basketball into one of the nation’s most dominant programs over the years, guiding them to six Final Fours in the last nine NCAA Tournaments (2015, 2017, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024). During her 16 seasons there, she’s already brought in three national championships (2017, 2022, 2024) and will aim for her fourth in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

During her college basketball playing career, Staley was one of the greatest players in Virginia women’s basketball history during her time with the Cavaliers. She had her jersey retired. Once she wrapped up her career there, she scored more than 2,000 points, had more than 700 rebounds, more than 700 assists, and more than 400 steals, becoming the only women’s basketball player in ACC history to accomplish the feat.