Dawn Staley gives thanks to the 'basketball gods' for five consecutive Sweet 16s

There were a few scares along the way, but South Carolina women's basketball is back in the Sweet 16 for the fifth year in a row.

With a 66-56 win against Virginia on Sunday night, the Gamecocks secured a full half-decade of making it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, and in doing so, they joined an elite group of programs — only Connecticut, Notre Dame, Stanford and Baylor have longer active streaks in the NCAA.

Granted, after last year's national title run, just making the Sweet 16 is no longer the goal for USC. But on Sunday night, Staley put the accomplishment in perspective.

"I go back to the first two years of being here at South Carolina, when I was in my home, watching Selection Monday . . . and it's the most boring, angriest thing that you can be a part of, to sit at home and watch other people's names appear across the screen, and you're left out," Staley said of her initial seasons at USC when the team failed to make the postseason.

"That is the desire of all coaches — to be a part of the biggest tournament in college basketball, and I think it's great that our teams have been able to sustain a certain level of success, and I hope it just continues, because our coaches work hard, our players work hard, and hopefully, the basketball gods continue to favor us."

Staley also pointed to high rate of turnover from last year's team, as well as a host of injuries this season, as reasons why South Carolina's Sweet 16 berth was especially gratifying. All told, Staley lost nearly 60 percent of her scoring, 57 percent of her assists and more than 50 percent of her rebounding from last year's team.

"We don't talk about what we don't have; we just concentrate on the players we do have that are healthy, that can help us continue to advance," Staley said. "I'm proud of this team, because we got three people that hadn't started in a college game, and they play a lot of minutes and they got us back to the Sweet 16. So it's a great accomplishment."

But advancing beyond the Sweet 16 will not be an easy task for the Gamecocks, who could face No. 3 seed Florida State on Saturday in Albany, New York, then potentially No. 1 UConn in the Elite Eight.

South Carolina and Florida State have played twice late in the tournament over the past three years, with USC triumphing both times. Still, Staley said those past experiences are less valuable in the context of the tourney, when the pressure is amped up and teams don't always play like they typically do.

"When you play them once a year and it's at the NCAA Tournament, it's a little bit different because you have the entire season on top of you," Staley said. "Obviously they have some high frequency plays and defensive schemes, but they're a different team, we're a different team than we were last year."

Florida State has yet to clinch its Sweet 16 berth yet, though. The Seminoles face Buffalo, a team Staley said is playing "very well" as of late, on Monday night.

This story was originally published March 19, 2018 at 5:14 PM with the headline "Dawn Staley gives thanks to the 'basketball gods' for five consecutive Sweet 16s."