South Carolina women's basketball: Dawn Staley wants to avoid 2016

South Carolina Women’s Basketball: News • Recruiting • Schedule • Roster • Stats • SEC • Polls • Scholarships

South Carolina’s run to the 2022 national championship was defined by its singular focus on winning, caused by the heartbreak of 2021. With revenge in hand, the question is how South Carolina can find that same focus this season. Dawn Staley is turning to the distant past – 2016 – for guidance.

The 2015-16 season is something of a forgotten campaign. It was sandwiched between the program’s first Final Four and first national championship.

South Carolina made its first Final Four in 2015. At the time, it felt like South Carolina had cemented itself among the elite programs in the country: the Gamecocks had a two-time SEC player of the Year in Tiffany Mitchell, a generational talent in A’ja Wilson, and a roster loaded with talent to back them up. 

Special: Get a year of Gamecock Central for $10!

The Gamecocks cruised through the regular season with just one loss (66-54 to UConn), went 16-0 in the SEC, and won the tournament. But the cracks were there. Mitchell was never quite right after offseason surgery, despite winning SEC Player of the Year Wilson hadn’t fully embraced her leadership role, and the undefeated conference slate was more about a down year in the SEC. 

It all came crashing down in the Sweet 16 in Sioux Falls, SD. South Carolina was easily upset by unheralded Syracuse, the same team the Gamecocks routed 97-68 in the previous tournament. That Gamecock team wasn’t bad, but it didn’t have “it.”

“We were just trying to get to the postseason and win a national championship,” Staley said. “We denied the journey part of it. The part before getting to the Final Four got stale for us. We can’t allow that to seep in this year.”

Receive breaking news and in-depth analysis via email

The motivation was easy to come by last season. There were constant reminders of just how close they had been the year before, whether it was the rematch with Stanford or the ESPN promos that featured a heavy dose of Aliyah Boston sobbing after the loss.

“When you’re one of the best teams in the country and you lose in the Final Four it helps you,” Staley said. “It motivates you every day in practice to create that small margin of error to play for. Now that we’ve won a championship for coaches it’s how do you keep them challenged in a way that has them thinking win another one.”

Part of the motivation is simple math – only the Gamecocks can repeat. It’s also the last chance (presumably, since they all have a COVID year) for the senior class of Laeticia Amihere, Brea Beal, Aliyah Boston, and Zia Cooke, to make good on their promise to win championships.

“This group all along has wanted to win championships,” Staley said. “They never said one championship, they said championships. They put the work behind it. We’re the only team that can say we can go back-to-back at this point, and that’s going to be our focus.”

South Carolina begins its championship defense with an exhibition against Benedict on October 31 and then opens the regular season on November 7 against East Tennessee State. The team will raise the championship banners prior to that game.

Discuss South Carolina women’s basketball on The Insiders Forum!