Will Dawn Staley claim a national title for South Carolina? ‘Why not?’
The NCAA hasn’t yet said if it will recognize a national champion in men’s or women’s basketball after canceling its annual tournaments due the spread of the novel coronavirus.
But that’s not stopping South Carolina’s Dawn Staley from calling it like she sees it. Her Gamecocks swept the No. 1 spots in the AP and coaches polls to end the season, and speaking on SportsTalk on Thursday, Staley said that’s enough for her to claim a national title.
“Absolutely,” Staley said when asked by SportsTalk’s Phil Kornblut if she was ready to declare USC the national champion. “I mean, we couldn’t have an NCAA tournament. And you go to the next best thing, which is your polls. I mean that’s what we’ve been judged by all season long. Some people didn’t have us at number one, some people still don’t have us as number one, but the majority, the majority of people have watched and the majority of people have voted, declared as the number one team in the country. Why not?”
Staley and South Carolina won a national championship in 2017 and were likely to be the No. 1 overall seed and favorite in this year’s tournament before it was canceled. The Gamecocks went 32-1 for the program’s best ever winning percentage and swept the SEC regular season and tournament titles in undefeated fashion.
The NCAA has always used a tournament to declare a national champion, but college football has used polls throughout its history to declare title winners.
When Kornblut followed up and asked Staley if she planned on hoisting a banner or distributing rings to her squad to commemorate the national title, she didn’t give specifics but did indicate some kind of celebration was possible.
“I have no idea, but I’m surely going to push the envelope because of what happened. I think our seniors, I think this team that did something that no other team at South Carolina has ever done, and that’s to be the No. 1 team in the country at the end of the season. When you have breakthroughs like that and when you’re creating historical moments, it doesn’t matter if the bottom fell out or not. It’s still saying, you know, that we’re the No. 1 team in the country, and we played that way, I would say, for 98% of the season. And that was better than everybody else in the country. So why not?”
Staley’s confidence stems in part from her belief that this year’s squad was “by far” the best she’s ever had as a coach, a career that now spans 20 seasons, she told SportsTalk.
“They just wanted to create history, and they would say that from time to time. You know (freshman guard) Zia Cooke would say, ‘We’re about to make history,’” Staley said. “And as a freshman, you’re thinking, ‘Oh, she doesn’t know what she’s saying, you know, she hasn’t been here before.’ But she said it at every big moment of the season.”
Most observers had the Gamecocks pegged to face No. 2 Oregon in the national title game, which would have matched up South Carolina’s newly-minted All-Americans Tyasha Harris and Aliyah Boston against the Ducks’ All-Americans, Sabrina Ionescu, Ruthy Hebard and Satou Sabally. Had that matchup come to pass, Staley said she would like her team’s chances.
“I like what we brought on the defensive side of the ball because I don’t think they can simulate, even in preparation, the way we defend. I don’t think they’ve seen the type of defense that we play all season long, besides one time, and that was against Louisville (Oregon lost 72-62).”
Such as it is, South Carolina won’t get a chance to win a title on the court until next season. Looking ahead, the Gamecocks are likely to remain near the very top of the polls heading into 2020-21, as they lose seniors Tyasha Harris and Mikiah Herbert Harrigan but return everyone else and add transfer Destiny Littleton, who sat out this past year under NCAA rules.
Staley told SportsTalk that she expects everyone who can return to do so.
