How Dawn Staley and USC’s staff balance the transfer portal opening with NCAA prep
Dawn Staley and her staff are in the midst of another run in the NCAA Tournament. The No. 1 seeded South Carolina women’s basketball team is playing No. 4 seed Maryland in the Sweet 16 on Friday in Birmingham, Alabama.
The bulk of Staley’s concentration is on winning another national championship, but she and her staff can’t forget something that has become a vital piece of college basketball and college sports in general: The transfer portal.
The transfer portal opened Tuesday, March 25 and since then nearly 900 Division I women’s basketball players have entered it as of Thursday morning, according to On3’s tracker. Last year, over 1,300 players entered, per ESPN.
Coaches and fans alike have complained in the past about the portal opening during March Madness. The portal window has a rather untimely start (leading into the second weekend of NCAA Tournament games) and closes on April 23. Staley didn’t lodge a formal complaint but agrees the timing is inconvenient.
“I think the timing is all screwed up,” she said Thursday. “It really plays on your ability to compartmentalize. It really plays on it. If you aren’t — I mean, most coaches are — but if you are not really good at it, it can sidetrack you.”
Staley said recruiting in the transfer portal is just another part of the job now, to the point where she was planning to make multiple calls to portal targets later Thursday afternoon after USC completed its practice and media obligations at Legacy Arena.
She said winning a national championship is her biggest concern at the moment.
“The main thing at this point is trying to win another national championship,” Staley said. “The people that are in the portal, if they can’t really understand that, they probably aren’t ones that prioritizes winning a national championship.”
“But you still have to do it. I’m going to call somebody when I leave here. A few people. Just because you got to let them know, ‘Hey, we’re thinking about you. We got this run we’re trying to. ... But you are a priority for us.’ ”
USC’s portal history
South Carolina is no stranger to using the transfer portal. In fact, the Gamecocks have signed signed at least one portal player in each of the past four offseasons alone: Syracuse center Kamilla Cardoso in 2021; Georgia Tech guard Kierra Fletcher in 2022; Oregon guard Te-Hina Paopao and Northwest Florida State center Sakima Walker in 2023; and Arkansas forward Maryam Dauda in 2024.
USC also took transfers regularly earlier in Staley’s tenure, at a point where players had to sit out a year when they transferred and the portal did not exist. UNC transfer Allisha Gray, for example, was a key part of the team’s 2017 national title team.
“If you have a need, the transfer portal (has) more than enough in there to find someone that can help your program,” Staley said.
Staley has said on her radio show “Carolina Calls” that the Gamecocks could bring in a player or multiple players from the transfer portal.
Earlier this month, for example, she told a caller that South Carolina could address its need for a true center or post-centric player via the transfer portal.
And in February, she told a caller the team’s recruiting class of 2025 would be “more than one,” though it’s unclear whether that meant another high schooler or a portal player or some combination. Since then the Gamecocks added a commitment from five-star guard Agot Makeer who is the No. 4 recruit in the class of 2025.
Five-star guard Ayla McDowell previously signed with USC in October.
With portal dates overlapping with the Gamecocks’ quest for a second straight and four overall national championship, Staley said there’s no choice but to multitask.
“We’re talking to some people that we’re interested in, at least talking to their representatives,” she said. “That’s just part of it.”
This story was originally published March 27, 2025 at 5:21 PM.
