No April Fools’ joke: Dawn Staley speaks on Kamilla Cardoso’s WNBA decision
Dawn Staley hoped it was an April Fools’ Day joke. She knew it wasn’t.
On Monday, April 1, just a day after the South Carolina women’s basketball team beat Oregon State to advance to the program’s sixth Final Four, Gamecocks center Kamilla Cardoso met with Staley in the afternoon to deliver bittersweet news.
Her time at South Carolina — which will continue on Friday against N.C. State in the Final Four and could conclude with USC’s third national title — is coming to an end, Cardoso told Staley. She’s entering the WNBA Draft.
“I had one discussion with Kamilla about it, and it was yesterday,” Staley said Tuesday. “There was no trying to get her to come back.”
The decision shouldn’t come as a major shock — Cardoso, a 6-foot-7 native of Brazil, is currently projected by ESPN as a Top 5 pick in this month’s WNBA Draft — but it is certainly a blow for the Gamecocks.
Anchoring the undefeated Gamecocks (36-0) in the paint, Cardoso leads South Carolina in scoring (14.1 ppg), rebounding (9.4), blocks (2.5 bpg) and field-goal percentage (59%).
Cardoso was named the Most Outstanding Player in the Albany 1 Regional on Sunday after helping the Gamecocks advance to their fourth straight NCAA Final Four. Perhaps, though, she is best remembered for the only 3-pointer of her college career — a buzzer-beater to knock off Tennessee in the SEC Tournament.
“I want to walk them to the next level — when they’re prepared,” Staley said, “when I feel like they have done enough on this level and the only thing that can help them is being on that level. Kamilla’s in that position. She’s been in our program for three years now. She played a role for us in the first two, and now she plays the focal point.”
She transferred to South Carolina from Syracuse in 2021. Since then, Cardoso has won the SEC’s Sixth Woman of the Year Award (2023), been named an All-American by The Associated Press and United States Basketball Writers Association (2024) and chosen as a finalist for the Naismith Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards (2024).
“Any time you play the focal point in our program, it expedites your ability to be able to make the jump to the WNBA,” Staley said of her center. “And I do feel like her making the jump will only mean that her best basketball is ahead of her.”
Cardoso is no stranger to making a jump. In February, she left the team for over a week as she traveled to Brazil to play for her home country in the 2024 FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournaments. There, she made the tournament’s all-star team.
“When you go to the next level and you’re playing with like-minded players,” Staley said, “you’ve got no choice but to elevate. And she’ll do that at the next level.”
Final Four schedule
Who: No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 3 N.C. State
When: 7 p.m. Friday, April 5
Where: Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio
TV channel: ESPN
USC Final Four history: 2015, 2017, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
This story was originally published April 2, 2024 at 8:29 PM.
