Why aren’t they winning by more points? They’ll be fine, I assured her throughout the season. South Carolina guard Brea Beal plays during the first quarter against the Iowa Hawkeyes during the 2023 NCAA Women’s Final Four semifinal game at American Airlines Center on March 31 in Dallas. While the team won its first 36 games, and 42 consecutive games overall, the pressure felt different. Staley has been rightly compared to another larger-than-life coach, John Thompson Jr. I’ve watched the team become representative of something more than basketball because of its coach, her stances, her standards. Raphael Warnock became a household name, then he became Georgia’s first Black senator.Īs a native South Carolinian, I’m only an hour’s drive away from Columbia, so I’ve had a bird’s-eye view of the Gamecocks’ overwhelming success. Kelly Loeffler’s rebuke of Black Lives Matter with a two-word response: “ Vote Warnock.” Democratic candidate the Rev. The WNBA and female basketball players have been standard-bearers, whether it’s four Minnesota Lynx players wearing Black Lives Matter shirts to protest the police killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, or Atlanta Dream players responding to former co-owner and Sen. The sacrifices and successes of that team are a remarkable flash point that captures the power and conviction of the sport in influence and social justice. women’s basketball team, Staley’s role as an ambassador to the game makes sense. Staley represents the community of women’s college basketball, specifically, the legwork it takes to build such a landscape.Īs a member of the 1996 U.S. Her energy never waned, and she practically had to be pulled away from fans for an urgent media interview. I watched her shake hands with hundreds of people and take countless photos. As the team rushed back to Columbia, South Carolina, to celebrate the title, I did the same. The following morning, I received an email with a tagline fit for a queen – “We Are The Champions, My Friend.” Staley and the team were scheduled to meet with fans, or FAMS, that afternoon. She pitched the greatness of her players and the sport in general. On a Sunday night in Minneapolis, after the Gamecocks coach cut down the nets, she joined the postgame panel. I turned on my digital video recorder after the South Carolina Gamecocks defeated UConn in the national title game a year ago.

Uk basketball roster 2010 2011