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South Carolina

Dawn Staley recalls 'anticipation' for SEC coin flip: 'I was nervous and excited all at the same time'

ns_headshot_2024-clearby: Nick Schultz03/07/25NickSchultz_7
South Carolina HC Dawn Staley
Jeff Blake | Imagn Images

Sunday afternoon, the eyes of the college basketball world turned toward Birmingham. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey had a coin with two teams on it – and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament was on the line.

South Carolina forced the unique tiebreaker after defeating Kentucky. The Gamecocks shared the SEC regular-season title with Texas, and after splitting the season series, it came down to a coin flip at halftime of LSU vs. Ole Miss.

Dawn Staley was among those watching. Her South Carolina team stayed at the arena to watch Sankey toss the coin, hoping to earn the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. Luckily, she said, the Gamecocks were preparing for such a moment.

“As it was moving towards the coin flip, I think it was like two or three games left of the regular season, and we’re like, ‘Okay,'” Staley said on SiriusXM College Sports Radio. “The league thought it was best to start preparing for it just in case it happened. As we beat a tough Kentucky team at home, we took care of business and we kind of exhaled and then, we watched a little bit of Texas. Finished up their game, and then, the anticipated coin flip. We all stayed at the arena after the game to watch the halftime, to see the commissioner.

“I was nervous and excited all at the same time because you anticipate it for the past, like, two weeks. Now, it’s here, and it comes down to the coin gods. The coin gods taking over. Fortunately, for us, we got it.”

Dawn Staley: ‘It’s advantageous to be the No. 1 seed’

By tying with Texas, South Carolina shared the conference title. But Dawn Staley said the No. 1 seed is important as the teams got ready for the SEC tournament. The top seed gets to play in the first session of the day, which means it gets more time to recover after games. The No. 2 seed, meanwhile, plays later in the day.

But the coin flip also showed Staley something else. People tuned in to watch – and talk about women’s basketball.

“The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds are different in that the time of day that you play or the night, you’re the 2-seed, you think you guys should play in the first session,” Staley said. “But it’s not like that. You’ve got to play in the second session, and if you continue to advance, the weekend always seems like the weekend where you spring forward with the time change. I think it’s advantageous to be the No. 1 seed.

“I will say, it was covered very nicely. It gave us something else to cover besides the actual games. That’s always a good thing, and I’m not just saying that because we on the coin flip. I’m saying it because I was really excited about watching it and anticipating watching it. And so was everybody else. It sparked up a lot of conversation.”