Dawn Staley makes history as she wins all major national coach of the year honors
Nearly two decades after she was recognized as the nation’s top player, Dawn Staley is at the top of her field once more, clinching a sweep of national coach of the year honors.
Staley was named the Naismith Coach of the Year on Thursday, adding to an already impressive awards season haul including national honors from the Associated Press, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and ESPN. She was also named SEC Coach of the Year.
“I know it’s an incredible time of the year now in our world, and basketball seems like a distant thing,” Staley said on CBS Sports, referencing the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. “But I hope that our FAMS and everybody at the University of South Carolina can just hone in on this award and feel it a little bit and give us a little bit of hope for some normalcy and hopefully we can get basketball season here in the near future back.”
In 1991 and 1992, Staley was named national player of the year by both the Atlanta Tipoff Club, which presents the Naismith Trophy, and the USBWA. She is now the first woman to ever win both player and coach of the year honors from either organization.
“Any award that has the name Naismith in it is is pretty special,” Staley said on CBS Sports.
Staley led the Gamecocks to the nation’s best winning percentage with a 32-1 record, including a perfect 19-0 sweep through SEC regular season and tournament play. South Carolina finished the year ranked No. 1 in both the AP and coaches polls after the NCAA tournament was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
USC entered the year in the top 10 of both the AP and coaches polls, but with plenty of question marks after an offseason with three transfers out of the program and the nation’s No. 1-ranked incoming freshman class.
But with a mix of two seniors and three freshmen in the starting lineup, Carolina came out strong and racked up a top-five win on the road over Maryland in the second game of the season. From there, Staley’s squad collected 13 wins over ranked opponents, including the program’s first wins over powerhouses UConn and Baylor. The team’s only loss came in November to Indiana. After that, the Gamecocks set a new program record with 26 consecutive wins and were primed to receive the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tourney, which would have been another program first.
“This is my 20th year coaching, and this, by far, was my best, my most enjoyable,” Staley said on CBS Sports. “Because we had such great players who just wanted to win. They were genuinely happy for each other. Obviously they wanted to do well individually, and they embraced their roles, we had no issues. And as a coach, when you can only coach basketball and not have to deal with, you know, the stuff that comes with coaching 18- and 22-year-olds throughout your career — when it’s just basketball — it’s such a beautiful thing. So I remember this year as being basketball utopia.”
Also on Thursday, senior point guard Tyasha Harris was named an All-American by the WBCA, making her a unanimous All-American after picking up the same recognition from the AP, USBWA and Wooden Award. She set a career best with 12.0 points per game and led the SEC with 5.7 assists per game, which also ranked 12th nationally. All told, she scored or assisted on 30.7% of South Carolina’s points all year.
This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 12:05 PM.
