TAMPA — In their final act, the most successful players in South Carolina Gamecocks basketball history did something they had never done before: They lost an NCAA tournament game to a much better team.
The Gamecocks did not expect this. They have accumulated far too much pride for that. Sure, the Connecticut Huskies blew them out in Columbia in February, but they told themselves the same story their play has told everybody else for years: When we play well, we win.
But then UConn beat South Carolina, 82–59, in the national championship game, and afterward, Bree Hall sat in the postgame press conference and uttered seven words that no player has ever uttered after losing a national championship game:
“I’m glad I could do this presser.”
Hey … what … huh?
“I’m just not as upset as you would think I would be,” Hall said.
Was this because she knew they lost to a better team, or because she was grateful for all she accomplished?
“A little bit of both,” Hall said. “I mean, they did their thing—I’ve got to give them their credit. But to sit here and be so upset about something like this, when I’ve had such an incredible four years, made history at the program … like, it’s just no reason to be super, super-duper upset.”
Think about the self-assurance required to lose a national championship game and say you’re not that upset. Hall did not sound worried about what fans might say or what WNBA teams might think, and why should she? If she has proven anything in her four years at South Carolina, it’s that she is a winner.
Year after year, Dawn Staley manages more competing ambitions than any other coach in the sport. Assistant Khadijah Sessions said this weekend that “there’s not a lot of coaches in the country that can maneuver 10 McDonald’s All-Americans,” and two hundred coaches just raised their hands and offered to try, but what Sessions said is still true. Staley succeeds, in part, by telling her players that when they get to the WNBA, they will have to learn how to play with other great players, so they might as well start now.
South Carolina has been ranked No. 1 in the country at some point in each of the last six seasons. Since the class of Hall, Sania Feagin and Raven Johnson enrolled in 2021, the Gamecocks played in four Final Fours and won two championships. The fact that none is a superstar only adds to the accomplishment. They didn’t just fit into Staley’s culture; they enhanced it.
“They’ve allowed me to coach them being my uncensored self,” Staley said. “Not a lot of coaches are able to just be who they are. I could have real conversations with them that maybe would probably hurt other people’s feelings. They allowed me to be me, because I was coming to them from a place of wanting them to get better.”
Their attitude helped transform South Carolina from a program that won a championship to a championship program. When Staley won her first title, in 2017, she had a future WNBA MVP: A’ja Wilson. When she won her second, in 2022, she had a future No. 1 overall pick: Aliyah Boston.
Since then, Staley has had plenty of talent, but nobody quite on the level of Wilson or Boston. Who knows what would have happened if Hall was more worried about offense than defense, or if Feagin insisted on being fed the ball like Wilson?
Staley is adamant that production is “nameless, faceless, experience-less.” She said at this Final Four that, “I’ve probably lost recruits because I’m never going to tell any young person that you’re going to automatically start. Young people, you need to bet on yourself. If you think you’re that good, right, you don’t need a handout. You just allow your work to speak for itself.” This all sounds good and true, but it only works if players in the program buy into it.
Freshman Joyce Edwards and sophomore MiLaysia Fulwiley were arguably the two most talented players on this South Carolina team. Fulwiley did not start a game this year. Edwards started one. The safest assumption in sports is that players want to play as much as possible. But Fulwiley and Edwards had to see that the players in the starting lineup earned it.
“If I’m them, they have an example of how it's done on a daily basis,” Staley said. “And if they aren’t bringing it like [the seniors] brought it on a daily basis, we’re probably not gonna end up here anymore—which I doubt, which I doubt.”
When Fulwiley walked off the court Sunday, she cried and cried and cried some more.
“I hope they’re crying,” Staley said. “I hope they’re boo-hooing. Because crying and having emotion about losing makes you work a little bit harder in the offseason, makes you look at it and really analyze what the separation is [between] their program and our program. They’re very talented, and I think they got a great experience of playing at this level. I hope they have a desire to get back here and do all the things that it takes to play in the national championship game and then deliver.”
College sports are an astoundingly transient enterprise at the moment, and the last time South Carolina lost an NCAA tournament game in 2023, Te-Hina Paopao was in four places at once. She was on Oregon’s roster; she was home; she was in the transfer portal; and she was, in her mind, already en route to Fort Worth.
“I was dead set on TCU,” Paopao said Saturday.
Then, she turned on the TV. While the rest of the country was mesmerized by Caitlin Clark, Paopao focused on the previously undefeated Gamecocks. They missed 16 of 20 three-pointers, and she thought: “Wow. I could really play for South Carolina.”
Soon after, Staley called and said, “We want you.”
Paopao said, “I was like, ‘Oh. Bye, TCU. I gotta go to South Carolina.’ ”
The Gamecocks brought Paopao in to be a shooter. She very quickly became a leader, and this, too, was a compliment to Hall, Feagin and Johnson: They allowed Paopao, like Staley, to be her uncensored self.
Staley predicted this weekend that Feagin will be a WNBA lottery pick. Hall’s defense could help her stick in the league. Johnson, who was injured as a freshman, could try the pros or come back. She told reporters Sunday that “that probably wasn’t the end,” and “I would love to end on a good note,” but immediately after losing a championship game is obviously the wrong time to make a career decision.
On the bench in the fourth quarter, Johnson was crying like everything was over. Hall put her arm around her, mostly to encourage her, but also because “I didn't want any pictures of her crying.” But then after the game, somebody sent Hall a picture of Johnson crying, and she decided “it was actually a cute moment.” Peace comes quickest to those who gave their best.
More March Madness on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as South Carolina’s Seniors Transformed Dawn Staley’s Program .