Everything Dawn Staley said after South Carolina's NCAA Tournament win over Tennessee Tech

South Carolina head women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley spoke to the media following the team’s 108-48 win over Tennessee Tech in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday. Here’s everything she had to say.

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Opening statement

“Congratulations to Tennessee Tech playing in the NCAA Tournament, playing their hearts out. They’re a very well-coached basketball team. Fortunately for us, our team did what they needed to do, took care of business to advance. I’m proud of them for that.”

On how South Carolina adjusted to Tennessee Tech packing the paint early

“It took us a little bit to adjust to it. I thought we knew it coming in the game. Actually, executing is a little bit harder, so it took us a while to adjust. I think, once Te-Hina Paopao hit a couple of shots and Tessa (Johnson) hit a couple of threes, it loosened up just a little bit to where we were able to maneuver a little bit more normal than having so much help. They compacted so much. Once we hit shots from the outside, it felt a little normal after that.”

On Staley’s takeaways from win over Tennessee Tech

“They hit the nail on the head when they said it’s just being disciplined, playing good basketball. Because I’ve always said good basketball is contagious, bad basketball is contagious. I hope we bring our ability to shoot the ball as well as we shot the ball. We shot the ball pretty good. And, hopefully, we can take that into the next game.”

On Joyce Edwards’ performance in her NCAA Tournament debut

“Joyce (Edwards), she makes a lot of layups. She’s very, very efficient making layups. Once you see that ball go in, whether it’s a layup or a free-throw, the basket gets big. I think her midrange was going, as well.

“Then, her teammates really find her. She does a good job of sprinting the floor. She does a great job at making herself available and showing numbers to where she makes the guards’ lives easier because her target is so big. When she’s converting and delivering, it’s much easier to pass that ball to her.”

On Staley’s relationship with Lisa Leslie, who was in attendance at Friday’s game

“Lisa (Leslie) is great. Lisa is a person that’s passionate about basketball. We’ve spent a lot of hotel nights as roommates. We absolutely love basketball. I’m going to pick her brain about some of the things that we need to do to continue to help our players – like Adhel (Tac) and Maryam (Dauda) and Joyce – develop.

“She is, I don’t know, a four-time Olympian. I don’t know how many MVPs, championships, gold medals (she has). Any time you can have a resource like that, it’s always great to have, especially when we get so many bigs that come through our program.”

On whether Staley talked to Leslie at Friday’s game

“Yeah, I talked to her. She’s staying at my house, so I saw her before the game. We’ll talk a lot tonight when I get back home. I don’t think we can get her. I might want to bring her to our film session at the hotel tonight, so I might be able to bring her there and just have her around our players to ask questions about how they can maximize this space in the NCAA Tournament and beyond.”

On Staley’s decision to have South Carolina’s players in the game for shorter shifts

“I thought our starters didn’t get off it a great start, didn’t really get off to a great start in the third quarter. (The starting lineup) just wasn’t able to manufacture enough points. I just wanted to see if our second unit could just jump-start our offense and jump-start our defense. We inserted them in the game; they made it happen. So, it’s nothing – our starters are our starters, and it’s nothing more than just trying to energize our team.”

On watching Edwards and MiLaysia Fulwiley perform in big games in their home state

“We’ve been great at cornering the South Carolina market. That was one of the things when we first took over here is to make sure that we hit every AAU coach, every high school coach to make sure that if they have any talent coming up through the pipeline, we’re here.

“To have players that are from here that represent this state, it’s paramount that we have that. I think it makes us more valuable when we go out and try to bring more national talent to our program. But charity begins at home. When we’re able to get the top kids for South Carolina to stay home, it’s always a great thing because they bring a great following.

“We’ve watched them since they were in the sixth grade. We’ve watched them come to camp and win all the awards. So, it’s cool to see that process get to a point where they trust us enough to want to come here and spend their college years here, getting ready for that next step in life.”

On a new chain Staley wore, along with her traditional necklace and bracelets

“I was gifted this by one of my friends, Plies. He’s a great supporter of our program over the past couple of seasons. I had no idea, but it’s really nice – I mean, it’s really nice. (It’s) just all about the details. There’s a picture on the back. It’s a national championship trophy; so, I like that. Hopefully, it brings us good luck to get another one.”

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