Dawn Staley says ‘it’s only fitting’ to host her US National Team in Columbia
Coming off one of the most challenging stretches of the season in early February 2018, Dawn Staley is going to relax — by coaching the South Carolina women’s basketball team and the U.S. Women’s National Team at the same time.
On Thursday, USA Basketball unveiled its 2017-2020 USA Basketball Women’s National Team pool of 29 players, all of whom will be invited to take part in a training camp in Columbia from Feb. 9-11. Star senior Gamecock A’ja Wilson was included in that group, from which the 12-player roster for the 2018 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup is expected to be selected.
At the same time, South Carolina will face Florida in conference play on Feb. 11, right on the heels of playing No. 1 UConn, No. 5 Mississippi State and Alabama in a row.
But in a teleconference Thursday, Staley waved aside concerns about juggling her dual roles.
“(The U.S. National Team is) going to practice at a time that does not conflict with our practice. If it does conflict with some prep time for our team, our staff has been together for a very long time, and our preparation is pretty much routine,” Staley said. “We know what to do when it comes game time and preparation. So we’ll be prepared for it.”
Staley has been at the helm of the national team since March, but she has had just one official training camp in her new position, at the end of September in Santa Barbara, California. And while many of her on-court goals remain the same for this February’s camp as far as evaluating players, she also expressed excitement about welcoming the world’s best to the city and university where she has built up a massive fan base.
“The amount of experience that’s going to be here in Columbia, South Carolina, is going to be great. I’m looking forward to working with the best players our country has to offer and the 29 players invited,” Staley said. “And, also, I want to share this experience, being at South Carolina and having them come to see our campus, our university, our city and our state, and I’m quite sure they’ll find it very, very enjoyable outside of the work that we need to put in on the floor.”
Wilson is the only past or current player from South Carolina included in the pool, while multiple players from traditional powers such as Connecticut, Notre Dame, Baylor, LSU, Louisville and Ohio State were selected. Now, Staley said, she wants to introduce those players to her fans, and vice versa.
“Just living (in Columbia) for the past almost 10 years, it’s a beautiful thing to see unfold, the way our fans have supported the program, and I know they’re extremely biased towards our program, but I do know our fans are appreciative of great basketball,” Staley said.
“But to bring the best that our country has to offer to Columbia, it says a lot. It says a lot about USA Basketball, it says a lot about how the sport has grown. It’s necessary that the training camp is here because of the timing of it, but if you look at the big picture, seeing women’s basketball grow as much as it has, to be in Columbia, to be amongst the greatest fans in the country, I think it’s only fitting that it’s here, that we can embrace what’s happened here in women’s basketball.”
Of the 29 players chosen in the pool, 13 have won Olympic or FIBA World Cup gold medals and 11 were part of the U.S.’s 2016 Olympic championship team. Staley is now tasked with keeping up a historic stretch of dominance for the U.S. in which the Americans have won every world championship and Olympic Games since 2006.
“Everybody that comes into a USA Basketball training camp, they do understand the culture that’s been created for a very long time, which is, they come in with a workman’s attitude,” Staley said. “For the most part, everyone comes in with an attitude of wanting to win a gold medal.”
The 2017-2020 USA Basketball Women’s National Team pool will gather from Feb. 9-11 to train at the Carolina Coliseum.
This story was originally published December 14, 2017 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Dawn Staley says ‘it’s only fitting’ to host her US National Team in Columbia."