Dawn Staley, South Carolina overachieved but title game loss is still crushing
· Yahoo Sports
PHOENIX — Dawn Staley woke up 40 minutes away from a fourth national championship, but the South Carolina women's basketball coach fell short.
The Gamecocks had no answers for their opponent once again, losing 79-51 to UCLA on April 5, one year after losing 82-59 to UConn.
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South Carolina's recent history of winning was on full display in the Final Four, holding the Huskies to their worst shooting night in four seasons to advance to a third straight title game.
But not even 48 hours later the Gamecocks were on the receiving end of a crushing defeat.
"The things we built our success on weren't happening for us tonight. And UCLA made us pay for it," Staley said.
Staley came into the game fifth in all-time in NCAA Tournament winning percentage (.771), with her streak of three title game appearances tied for the second-longest streak in March Madness history.
A win would have moved Staley to tied for the third-most championships all time, behind UConn coach Geno Auriemma's 12 and the late Pat Summitt, who won eight with Tennessee.
Kim Mulkey remains in third alone with four titles, keeping Staley tied with Tara VanDerveer, who won three with Stanford.
The victory for the Bruins marked the first in program history and the first for Cori Close, who has been at UCLA for 15 seasons. She's just the first coach not named Staley, Auriemma, Mulkey, VanDerveer or Muffet McGraw to win a national championship since 2011.
Losing three starters to the WNBA meant Staley wasn't necessarily expected to find herself back in the same place. Then when Staley lost junior forward Ashlyn Watkins for the season in July, it diminished the outside belief that her Gamecocks could return once again.
And when another starting forward Chloe Kitts tore her ACL in October, the perception shifted to just staying healthy.
From Nov. 4 to April 5, Staley had 30 games without her full roster, not including Watkins or Kitts. Each game Staley's message was clear, treat an injured player "like they're dead" and have a next man-up mentality.
That mindset won her 10th SEC regular-season title, only losing once in a conference that sent 10 teams to the Women's NCAA Tournament.
And it sent her to a sixth straight Final Four, the second-longest streak in women's basketball history.
After losing the SEC Tournament title to Texas, dropping another game in embarrassing fashion wasn't what Staley had in mind when mentioning how the last time that happened in 2022, it ended in a national title game loss.
But it was the reality.
"I think the way we played defense, we weren't getting stops, it is demoralizing," Staley said. "On the other end, we got easy shots that we usually make, compounds it but it doesn't take away from this team getting to this place and playing in the national championship."
Staley will try to extend that Final Four streak to seven and win title No. 4 with a Raven Johnson-less roster. She'll return with a new starting point guard after finding herself in four title games with Johnson, winning two.
In some ways it doesn't make sense to question Staley's ability to return to the national championship game. Staley lost a combined five starters, had two transfers and three freshmen and her two frontcourt options off the bench averaged less than seven minutes last year.
"I don't know if anybody had us here, advancing to this point," Staley said. "I'm super proud of our team, really proud. We got a lot to learn from the loss today and the challenge is to always get ready for next season and we'll do that shortly."
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at [email protected]. Follow her on X@Lulukesin and Bluesky@bylulukesin.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Dawn Staley overachieved with South Carolina but title-game loss stings