Do Dawn Staley and the Gamecocks think South Carolina's 2017-2018 was a success?
Nearly five months after it began, South Carolina women's basketball's 2017-2018 season is officially in the books.
The Gamecocks were emphatically bounced from the NCAA Tournament by No. 1 UConn in the Elite Eight on Monday, bringing senior All-American A'ja Wilson's career to an end and extinguishing any hopes USC fans might have harbored of back-to-back national titles.
So, can this year be considered a success, especially coming off a national championship season and returning the likely national player of the year? If you ask coach Dawn Staley, the answer is an enthusiastic yes.
"No one had us, probably, here, and the way that our team performed all year long under adversity, couldn't be more proud of our players and the way that they have handled themselves and the way that they did not succumb to 'woe is me' and 'why does it happen to me.' They just played it out, and we found ourselves in a place in which only us believed that we could be here," Staley said after Monday's defeat.
Unsurprisingly, many USC players agreed with Staley, pointing to season-ending injuries suffered by guards Lindsey Spann and Bianca Cuevas-Moore, as well as the team's lack of experience with the departure of three starters from last season, as adversity the squad had to overcome.
"We had a great season. We came in being the underdogs, people didn't think we'd make it this far, and look what we did. We have so much more to accomplish," redshirt junior forward Alexis Jennings said.
"We had a great season as a team. We faced a lot of adversity, and we overcame a lot. Tonight, it didn't fall our way, but it doesn't take away from what we did this season," freshman guard Bianca Jackson added.
That adversity caused some pundits to walk back their preseason predictions that South Carolina would win a fourth consecutive SEC title and make the Final Four again — the Gamecocks were No. 4 in the AP preseason poll and No. 2 in the coaches poll. At its lowest point, USC fell to No. 10 in both polls.
In the end, the Gamecocks advanced to their fifth consecutive Sweet 16 and finished with a 29-7 record, extending their run of 25-win seasons to seven but snapping their three-season stretch of 30 wins. They also won an unprecedented fourth consecutive SEC title.
Yet they fell short of the ultimate goal — a national championship, or even a Final Four, and that leaves a bitter taste, junior guard Doniyah Cliney said.
"No. It wasn't," Cliney simply said when asked whether this season was all that she wanted it to be. "I am happy, but this regional, not happy at all. The SEC title, of course I'm happy with that. Not today."
But that bitter taste and sadness are not feelings South Carolina should want to forget right away, Wilson said.
"I especially told the freshmen, embrace this moment. Know how it feels, because I know my sophomore year, I didn't like it (when South Carolina lost in the Sweet 16), and I don't like it now," Wilson said. "So take it all in. Everyone's got years ahead of them, and it flies by like no other. But the biggest thing is just feel it, feel it, feel it, but then at the same time, embrace it.
"The sky's the limit with these young girls. They have a lot of talent, and I don't think they've quite found it within themselves at this point, but that's the thing about playing with coach Staley. She's going to get it out of you."
Ultimately, the mood in the locker room of Times Union Center in Albany, New York, on Monday didn't seem to be that of a team just happy to have made it that far, nor that of a squad despondent after missing out on one last chance, because Staley and the Gamecocks don't think that's the case, even if Wilson is now on her way out.
"We're in the midst of being a top-notch program," Staley said. "The cupboards aren't bare."
This story was originally published March 27, 2018 at 12:01 PM with the headline "Do Dawn Staley and the Gamecocks think South Carolina's 2017-2018 was a success?."