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Morris: Losses not deterring Staley
The direction — if not the wins — of USC’s women’s team has USC’s athletics director giddy for the future
In this Jan. 29, 2009 photo, South Carolina's coach Dawn Staley talks to her player Lakeisha Sutton(11) during the first half of their NCAA college basketball game against LSU at the Colonial Life Area in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)
Mary Ann Chastain/AP
Posted on 02.20.09
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FROM HIS SIDELINE seat, Eric Hyman shared the exasperation of the South Carolina women’s basketball team. USC fought gallantly from 13 points down, only to watch helplessly as Mississippi covered the length of the court and scored on a layup at the buzzer.
The questions buzzed around USC’s athletics director. What else possibly could go wrong for Dawn Staley’s first USC team? And, was there no reward for perseverance, determination and grit?
“I’m still not patient,” Staley said of having to suffer through a 9-15 season filled with much more tumult and heartache than just reward. “This year, from a coaching standpoint, it’s a trying time. But this is what I asked for. I asked for a challenge. I’m getting every bit of a challenge. But it’s what keeps me going.”
Sensing her frustration, Hyman called a meeting the following day with Staley and her coaching staff. Hyman had warned Staley that patience was going to be her ultimate virtue in taking on the many challenges of coaching the USC women’s team.
“I just want you to know I am just as proud of you as the men’s basketball team,” Hyman said he told Staley’s staff. “The more and more I watch you, the more excited I become.
“One of the truest evaluations of a coach and her staff is whether your athletes are reaching their potential. They are playing to their potential. You can’t ask for anything more, and I can’t ask for anything more.”
Hyman’s words, while comforting in a time of need, were hardly solace to Staley. She does not know how to lose, and she did not plan to experience it for the first time, even at USC.
OK, there was one other time in her illustrious playing and coaching career when Staley experienced what might be called losing. During her third season as coach at Temple, the Owls were 14-15 in 2003. The final record came with an asterisk, though, because Temple placed second in the Atlantic 10’s East Division.
Otherwise, Staley knows only winning. Her teams at Virginia played in three Final Fours. In international competition, she collected 10 gold medals as a player, including Olympic titles in 1996, 2000 and 2004.
Under her direction, her eight Temple teams won 20 or more games six times, captured the Atlantic 10 tournament title four times and reached the NCAA tournament on six occasions.
So you understand better when Staley gets a tad defensive when asked if this USC season has gone about as expected.
“Absolutely not,” Staley shot back. “I expected to win. I didn’t know how we were going to do it. But I expected to win. That’s always going to be me. I want to win. I can’t anticipate losing. It’s just not in me to anticipate losing. I can anticipate a lot of things, injuries or whatever. I can’t anticipate losing.
“As long as we have legs to run, breath to breathe, I’m always going to have that optimism.”
Her optimism and fire have infiltrated a team short on SEC-caliber talent from the outset, then beset by crippling injuries. Senior leaders Brionna Dickerson and Demetress Adams went down with season-ending knee injuries within 11 days of each other as January turned to February.
“If you took Devan Downey and Dominique Archie out of the equation for the men’s program, where would you be?” Hyman asked rhetorically of the USC men’s team that is challenging for the SEC East title under first-year coach Darrin Horn.
For the final seven games of the SEC women’s season, USC will be without its leading scorer (Dickerson, at 18.2 points a game), top 3-point shooter (Dickerson, at 43.2 percent) and second-leading rebounder (Adams, at 4.8 per game).
USC is left with nine players on its roster, including a lone senior, C.J. Pace, and not a single junior. Staley’s first recruiting class comprises the bulk of minutes played.
Through it all, USC has remained competitive against every SEC opponent, including the nationally ranked ones: Auburn, Florida, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.
“If I wasn’t needed here, I wouldn’t be here,” Staley said. “Obviously, there is a need for our coaching staff to be here, and I think we have to go through this right now in order for us to know what it feels like to be on the flip side. It will keep us grounded. It will keep us hungry.”
That hunger was finally satisfied Sunday when USC surged late in an 11-point victory against Alabama at Colonial Life Arena. The win was USC’s second in SEC play against nine losses, but it served as a reward for the team’s hard work. It also had USC’s athletics director bubbling afterward.
“I cannot wait for a year, two years, three years down the road,” Hyman said, “because I know where we’re going. I bubble up with excitement.”
Listen to Morris on Tuesdays from 4-5 p.m. on ESPN Radio 93.1 FM.
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