South Carolina women's basketball: Dawn Staley on how NIL has changed her recruiting strategy

Speaking at SEC Tipoff ‘26 in Birmingham on Tuesday, Dawn Staley talked about her evolving recruiting strategy in the NIL/rev share era.

South Carolina only has one 2026 commitment, forward Kelsi Andrews, although the Gamecocks are still in contention for almost a half dozen other players. Staley didn’t seem worried.

“Rev share is impacting everyone on different levels,” Staley said. “You’ve got to be creative in this space. I certainly don’t overpromise when it comes to rev share and NIL. I’m only going to spread it out with what we have in hand.”

Staley was alluding to reports that some programs are offering recruits more money than they actually have available. She appeared to confirm that those reports are true and said South Carolina misses some recruits as a result.

“If it’s all about the money, right, they’re a lot cheaper the second time around,” she said. “So I’m okay with letting them go.”

South Carolina has a history of success with transfers, dating back to the 2017 national championship team. That squad started two transfers, Allisha Gray and Kaela Davis, at a time before the current transfer rules made player movement easy.

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More recently, South Carolina had transfers like Te-Hina Paopao and Kamilla Cardoso on the undefeated 2024 national championship team. This offseason, South Carolina reloaded with Ta’Niya Latson and Madina Okot.

“I think we’ve got a quality program that produces pros,” she said. “When you are at a point in your career as a young person, when that becomes the priority, we always get a look the second time around. I’m okay with that as well.”

Staley can point to a slew of former Gamecocks making an impact in the WNBA. It begins with A’ja Wilson, who might be the best WNBA player ever, but she has company. Gray was named first-team All-WNBA, and Aliyah Boston was second-team. Cardoso made the All-Rookie team last year, and Paopao was a part-time starter for Atlanta, which finished with the second-best record in the league. 

In July, Latson and Okot both cited Staley’s legacy of producing pros as a major reason they transferred to South Carolina.

“If you reflect on the history, she’s been able to produce very good foreign players and center players that are doing very, very good in the WNBA,” Okot said. “That’s what motivated me.”

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