The top coach in the land: Dawn Staley named AP Coach of the Year
The awards keep coming for the South Carolina women’s basketball team. Now, it’s coach Dawn Staley’s turn.
Staley was named the Associated Press Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year on Monday, capping an impressive run for the Gamecocks and the first such honor of her 20-year coaching career. In 2018, she was named USA Basketball’s Coach of the Year.
“It’s a great feeling. It’s cliche as I represent the best team in the country and our coaching staff and our support staff. Our trainers and everybody. It’s great,” she told the AP. “It’s something that we haven’t been able to celebrate, but we will celebrate it together at a later time.”
Staley had previously been named SEC Coach of the Year this season for the fourth time in her career. USC also had senior guard Tyasha Harris and freshman forward Aliyah Boston recognized by the AP as All-Americans.
Staley is also one of four finalists for Naismith Coach of the Year. Fans can vote for that award until April 1 and the winner will be announced April 3 — if she wins, Staley would become the first person, man or woman, to win Naismith Player of the Year and Coach of the Year.
This year, Staley guided the Gamecocks to a 32-1 record and a 19-0 sweep of the SEC regular season and conference titles. USC finished the year ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 and USA Today’s coaches poll. The team’s only loss came against Indiana in November.
South Carolina’s 13 wins over nationally ranked opponents were more than any other team in the country this season and matched the 2015-16 team for the most in program history.
The Gamecocks would have been a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and favorite to reach the program’s third Final Four and compete for its second national title. But the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus caused the NCAA to cancel the winter and spring sports championships.
While the NCAA has not said it will recognize a national champion, Staley has said open to declaring her squad as such because of its No. 1 ranking.
“Absolutely,” Staley said last week 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 won her 300th game at USC earlier this season and is 305-98 since taking over the program in 2008-09, making her the winningest coach at South Carolina ever, man or woman. Overall, she is 477-178 in her coaching career.
Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu was a unanimous selection Monday as the AP women’s basketball player of the year.
AP Women’s Coach of the Year voting
Votes were made by a national media panel that selects the Top 25 poll each week.
Dawn Staley: 20 votes
Northwestern coach Joe McKeown: 5 votes
Oregon coach Kelly Graves: 4 votes
NC State coach Wes Moore: 1 vote
More All-American honors
South Carolina freshman Aliyah Boston (second team) and senior Tyasha Harris (third team) received U.S. Basketball Writers Association All-America honors Monday. The Associated Press honored the pair as All-Americans last week.
Boston also is a finalist for the Naismith Women’s Defensive Player of the Year, the only Gamecock ever to be a finalist for the award and the lone underclassman among the four finalists. The winner is announced April 1. Boston, the SEC Defensive Player of the Year, finished the season ranked 11th in the country in total blocks (86) and 21st in blocks per game (2.61).
This story was originally published March 23, 2020 at 12:30 PM.
