Everything Dawn Staley said ahead of A'ja Wilson's jersey retirement, Auburn game

South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley media with the media on Saturday to discuss A’ja Wilson’s jersey retirement that’ll take place prior to Sunday’s Auburn game. She also briefly talked about the Tigers. Here’s everything she had to say.

About A’ja Wilson’s jersey retirement.

I mean, it’s about giving people their flowers. There’s no one more deserving than this weekend than A’ja. She legitimized our program. She took it to another level, and we still feel her legacy today. Everybody still talks about her contributions to our program. Everybody’s always comparing what her impact was when she was a student-athlete here, and that’s what legacy is, to be compared to the impact that you had.

Can you tell us a little bit about the process of how this all came about, your role in it, and just kind of that timeframe?

Yeah, I have no role in it. It’s all about that process. I think you have to be five or six years removed from your senior year. I think everyone would have been pretty okay with that process being shortened. I would have been. Actually, I asked about that part of it.

But, no, it’s our process and how we do things here. I think it couldn’t have happened at a more appropriate time with her being the best player in the world, with her having the type of success that she’s had, and she’s international. So, again, she’s given our program another platform to elevate it.

I know that university rules say the number, so technically not retired, but the jersey is. That said, it’s y’all’s choice if you ever give out 22 again. Do you see that happening?

Never, never, never. It’s retired. It’s retired. I can officially say that.

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The statue was unveiled in the middle of the pandemic, and nobody could really understand it. So, is this like a do-over where the fans get to be involved?

No, the statue’s old now. The statue’s monumental. There are so many eyes that have been on the statue that it was almost a prelude to today. If we couldn’t retire her jersey, what better way than to put a statue out in front? So it’s cool that A’ja’s able to come back and impart her knowledge.

She got a workout in this morning, a lift and a basketball workout. She sets the example. She tells our players how to be better pros, what the expectations are. And they’re quite simple; they’re hard, but it’s really simple. You just have to be disciplined to your craft.

How valuable is it to have someone like A’ja to point to when you’re out on the trail recruiting or just spreading the word about USC women’s basketball?

It was pretty cool. I think it was something that happened at one of the AAU events last year where people were asked if they could be one person in the WNBA, who would it be? And probably 90 percent said A’ja Wilson. So that means that these are prospects that are going all over the country to different programs. When you can have young people stamp A’ja, in essence, they’re stamping our program.

And that’s pretty cool. That’s pretty cool when young people can recognize the realness of not just a basketball player, because it’s not just a basketball player when you talk about A’ja Wilson. You’re talking about a great human being that you can be; you probably can’t be all the things that she is, but if you can be one of the things that she is, a best-seller author, an Olympian, MVP, a champion, an advocate for the voiceless, if you can be one of those things, you’re going to enrich our world.

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She’s had such a clear impact on your team. You talk about it all the time. But to stand here and be able to answer questions, to have Joyce Edwards asking her all of these questions, I mean, that impact, that value, and you have to feel like a proud mom watching that stuff.

I mean, we do. We have a long lineage of great talent that’s playing in the W. Every time they come back, we have those kind of sessions because you gain nuggets. Every one of our players wants to play in the WNBA. And every one of our former players, they have a different story because they’ve played different roles on different franchises, so they’re going to speak from the perspective of what their role is.

A’ja has a way of speaking from, you know, 30,000 feet, but she can bring it on down to ground level to let them know what her progress was because she wasn’t 30,000 feet when she was a rookie. She was really good, but if she knew what she knew today as a rookie, she would be a much better player, if that’s possible. But she can tell the variances of levels of how to have success at the next level.

You’ve talked about how she was one of the first players who just really gave herself to you. What did she teach you about yourself and your coaching style?

What A’ja really taught me is I can be the best version of me when you’re the best version of you. Meaning it’s okay to bring your problems to me. A lot of young people don’t want to bring their problems to me because, one, they’re just afraid of being vulnerable, which is cool. Everybody’s like that.

But I’m here to take everything off your plate so you can concentrate on academics and athletics. Everything else I’m good with. You can bring it, right? Bring it to me. Let me be your biggest resource.

She was always that. She would just bring her problems right here, sit down, we’d talk, clear it up. She was that kind of player, too, that she needed clarity. She would not play with, you know, stuff hanging over her head. It just weighed her down too much. And she recognized that. And when you recognize that, you’re able to protect your peace and be as good as you need to be in those areas that you need to be in.

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Coach, when you talk about A’ja just dropping some wisdom for the group, what type of hunger for that wisdom did you see over there just with her being here this weekend?

A lot of great questions. You can see our players’ appetite for wanting more information about how to be a pro. Because some of them are just short in their process. Their process is just beginning. Some of them have one foot in and one foot out because their process is sped up a little bit because that’s the next thing that they would like to do. And their time is running out.

So I think it’s great to have A’ja just kind of calm them down and let them know, really it’s just to simplify. It’s really just the work. To ask her how much time does she take off from in the offseason. Right? She said she takes two complete months off. Nothing. Just do what she wants to do. Doesn’t even work out.

Come December 27th, she’s like, that’s when I start. And then she said January 1st is two days for six days a week. Takes her Sundays off. That’s what they need to hear. That’s what our players need to hear because you start those habits now. So when it’s time to be a pro, your lifestyle doesn’t change.

How did you look after this bye week?

Refreshed. Like, super, super refreshed. And it happened at the perfect time. Like, after playing, you know, the gauntlet of the schedule, we didn’t have to come back and play Thursday. Took Tuesday off. Practiced Wednesday a little bit. Thursday took off. Friday was energized. A lot of energy in the building. A lot less execution. Because, you know, you got to get back to the swing of things. But today, they brought it all together. A lot of energy. A lot of execution. They’re ready.

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Auburn?

Auburn is very athletic. They’re going to pressure us. They’ve got pressure defense. They have a little half-court zone that we haven’t seen in a while. … They will push you back on your heels if you’re not ready to defend and not have your health situations in place. They’re great rebounders. But we have to be us. We really have to be who we’ve been these past eight games in our conference, and hopefully, we can protect home.

Who do you think is next to have their jersey in the rafters?

Aliyeah (Boston). Aliyah. Might have to get another statue out there. Might have to play chess out there with the statues.

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