The latest award for South Carolina’s Tyasha Harris has a special meaning
The honors keep coming for South Carolina’s Tyasha Harris, but the latest carries a special meaning.
The Gamecock senior won the Dawn Staley Award, named after USC’s head coach. The award recognizes the player who exemplifies the skills that Staley possessed throughout her career — ball handling, scoring, ability to distribute the basketball and the will to win.
Harris is the second Gamecock to win the award, joining Tiffany Mitchell (2015).
“It is a humbling thing each year to see the nation’s best guard be acknowledged as such with an award named after me, but this year it is a particular honor to have The Dawn Staley award go to a player I have had the immense privilege to coach over the last four years,” Staley said in a statement. “Ty Harris is a special guard, a special player, a special person. She won a National Championship as a freshman and spent the next two years working harder than any player in the country, honing her talents and quietly building one of the great careers in South Carolina history.
“This year it all paid off and the entire basketball world got to see her vision, her scoring ability, her tenacity and her leadership as she raised her team to be the best in the nation. I could not be more proud of this young woman, and it is my distinct honor to recognize Ty Harris as the 2020 recipient of The Dawn Staley Award.”
Harris averaged a career-high 12 points and led the Southeastern Conference with 5.7 assists a game. She contributed to 30.7 percent of the Gamecocks’ offense.
Harris was a first-team SEC selection and third-team AP All-American. She was named as a Naismith Trophy finalist on Friday and also on the watch lists for the Wade Trophy, Wooden Award and Nancy Lieberman Award. As a team, the Gamecocks won the SEC regular season and tournament championship and finished No. 1 in the AP and coaches polls.
“Truly blessed to receive such a prestigious award,” Harris said via Twitter. “Even better honor because I learned so much from her on and off the court over the last four years.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 9:17 AM.
