Setting high expectations shows genius of Dawn Staley

IN RETROSPECT, DAWN Staley’s approach to this South Carolina women’s basketball season was pure genius.

Staley abandoned the strategy of many college coaches and talked from the outset about what she expected from her team. She saw her collection of players as a potential championship club, not only in the SEC but also nationally.

“You do have to plant seeds. You have to be real calculating when you deal with young people,” Staley said shortly after her team won the Greensboro Regional on Sunday afternoon and earned the program’s first spot in the Final Four.

“When we lost to North Carolina last year in the Sweet 16, I knew the type of team we were bringing back,” she said. “So, I just wanted to make sure they knew that we were going to be talking about Final Four and national championship all season long.”

That message came through loud and clear, beginning when players met with the media in the preseason. To a player, they repeated Staley’s mantra of shooting for the moon.

The seed was planted. This team believed it would be playing in the Final Four in Tampa, Fla., this weekend with a chance to win the national title. So, when Staley met separately with each player before a game was played, the two went over individual and team goals. Those individual goals then were presented to the team.

It was OK for Tiffany Mitchell to seek a second consecutive SEC Player of the Year award. Aleighsa Welch told Staley she wanted to earn first-team All-SEC honors for a second consecutive season. A’ja Wilson wanted to follow in the footsteps of teammate Alaina Coates as the SEC Freshman of the Year.

All of those goals were accomplished.

“The biggest thing is accountability, accepting the fact this is a goal individually, so go out and get it,” Welch said. “You put it out there because, I think, the best way to embrace a goal is just to say it. Put it out there, and have your teammates remind you these are goals you have for yourself, so let’s go out there and get it.”

Then there were the team goals: Repeat as SEC regular-season champion; win the program’s first SEC tournament title; reach the Final Four; win the national championship.

“You just keep checking them off,” Welch said. “Check, check, check, and now we’re in a position where we accomplished another goal and that’s getting to Tampa.”

The process of checking off team goals meant developing as a team. As the season progressed, individual roles were defined and redefined, and players began to trust that the task of every teammate would be fulfilled.

“Of course the game has its ups and downs,” Staley said, “but for the most part, the trust factor is always there. When you’re able to trust the people that you’re with, and stay determined, you feel real good about your chances of winning basketball games.”

By late in the season, Staley had molded a team in the truest sense of the word, a group that lived up to its motto of “One” in winning 33 of 35 games.

That was never more apparent than in USC’s Greensboro Regional wins against North Carolina and Florida State, a pair of hard-fought games where the outcome was not decided until the final seconds. In each game, USC needed significant contributions from different players.

USC knows what it is going to get every game from Mitchell (late-game heroics) and Welch (sticky defense and solid rebounding).

The Gamecocks also got crucial outside shooting in the form of four 3-pointers from Tina Roy when North Carolina employed a sagging man-to-man defense. Coates controlled the inside game with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Olivia Gaines sank a huge 3-pointer – her third of the season – that tied the game late.

Against Florida State, when USC was having a difficult time gaining entry passes into the post area, guard Bianca Cuevas came off the bench to penetrate the defense with drives to the basket. Then Asia Dozier, who had made six of nine free-throw attempts all season, swished four consecutive in the closing seconds.

Even when it trailed in both games, USC remained resilient.

“There wasn’t (any panic),” Staley said. “Our team really trusts itself, trusts the people who are in the game and the people who are not in the game. They trust that people will make good decisions and make good plays.”

That trust came out of a singular belief established in the preseason and carried through the regular season and postseason that USC would be playing in the Final Four. For that, the Gamecocks can thank the genius of Dawn Staley.

This story was originally published March 30, 2015 at 10:44 PM with the headline "Setting high expectations shows genius of Dawn Staley."