Staley, Wilson still feeling national championship buzz

She hasn’t slept much, but she normally doesn’t. There’s always another game to prepare for, another recruit to woo, another thank-you Tweet to send to a fan.

It’s not that she’s a better coach than she was before Sunday, but the reality has hit her – Dawn Staley is a national championship coach.

“It’s a wonderful thing that’s shared amongst all of my former players, former coaches, colleagues, former teammates, everybody,” Staley said Tuesday. “Everybody gets to share in this moment.”

She was wearing her Final Four ballcap, championship T-shirt and the net she helped cut down, draped around her neck. It’s been as constant a staple as her chewing LifeSavers during games.

“I’ve taken off the net to sleep. Other than that, it’s been around my neck,” Staley said. “A’ja’s got her pearl necklace, I’ve got my net-lace.”

Staley and A’ja Wilson spoke Tuesday about how surreal the Gamecocks’ first national championship feels, and that it really hasn’t hit them yet. They’ve joined an exclusive club, and the term “national champion” will be attached to everything they ever do.

That’s in no way a bad thing. It’s just after the whirlwind of the last three weeks, the past two days have been about getting home and getting back to normal. Staley, as she always does during the offseason, described it as boring.

Wilson, about to officially be a college senior, has been making up lost time in the classroom and hasn’t wrapped her head around being a national champ. Although the new trophy was sitting less than 10 feet from her on the desk, swaddled in its own net, she couldn’t really grasp what it meant.

“I don’t know when it’s going to hit me, hopefully the parade, because I need it to hit so I can kind of breathe a little bit,” Wilson said. “For some reason, it feels like an SEC championship, I guess, because we played Mississippi State. It’s just still so surreal to me. It’s an incredible feeling, still.”

Staley was bombarded with messages after the game, expected since she won, and is slowly getting back to all of them. Some famous names have also reached out to her, such as Bill Clinton and LeBron James.

“Bill was kind of expected … ,” Staley began before checking herself (yes, she’s on a first-name basis with the former President because of a Clinton Foundation trip to Africa in 2013). “President Clinton. LeBron was a bit of a surprise. He’s welcome to come, though, Sunday.”

The Gamecocks will be honored at a parade on Sunday as a USC flag continues to fly from the Statehouse dome. Wilson expressed her eagerness to get the next season underway while Staley wouldn’t rule out the term “repeat.”

“I’m greedy. I’m greedy for success,” Staley said. “You have to approach it that way. If you just settle for what you’ve done in the past, that’s where the height of your career will be – in the past.”

This story was originally published April 4, 2017 at 3:34 PM with the headline "Staley, Wilson still feeling national championship buzz."