Black coaches’ success at SEC shows strength in numbers – The Undefeated

“What you saw gives hope to black women.”

Those were the words of South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley after her Gamecocks defeated Georgia in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) championship game two weeks ago. Georgia is coached by Joni Taylor. The confrontation between Staley and Taylor was the first time that two black coaches faced each other in a dispute for the women’s Power 5 title.

That’s life at the SEC now, the most diverse conference in Power 5 when it comes to female basketball coaches. Yes, the SEC, with its member schools consolidated in the Deep South of America.

The SEC is also arguably the best women’s college basketball conference this season. The conference received seven proposals for the NCAA tournament, with six teams ranked in the first four rows of seeds.

The 14 SEC teams have had seven black women leading their women’s basketball programs this season. Including Staley and Taylor, there are Nikki Fargas at LSU, Kyra Elzy in Kentucky, Nikki McCray in Mississippi, Yolett McPhee-McCuin in Mississippi and Terri Williams-Flournoy, who was fired by Auburn earlier this month.

This kind of diversity surpasses any other Power 5 conference in women’s basketball. There are three main black coaches in the ACC of 15 teams, zero in the Big 12, one of 14 in the Big Ten and two of 12 in the Pac-12.

According to the NCAA database in 2020, only 14% of Power 5 women’s basketball coaches were black women, compared to 52% of white women and 29% of white men. Black basketball players represent 49% of the Power 5, compared to 24% of white women and 28% others.

How important is diversity in coaching at the SEC for black women in the profession? It is huge, according to Fargas.

“When you see us, be it us,” the 10-year-old LSU coach told me on the day of the SEC championship game. “This will be the first time that my 9-year-old daughter will see two women of color [coaching] for a SEC championship. “

Fargas, who took the Tigers to five NCAA tournaments, including two Sweet 16s, described a group chat in which he is with dozens of current and former black coaches. “You can’t tell how excited they are all for today, for Joni and for Dawn,” she said. “It’s the same feeling that you had for Barack [Obama]. It’s the same thing, like, ‘look at us, we are here and we are being recognized and we are representing’. “

Taylor, in her sixth year as a head coach in Georgia, with three NCAA tournament bids under her belt, expressed a similar sentiment about today’s SEC. “To go from not seeing anyone in Division I women’s basketball, as I remember, other than C. Vivian Stringer, as a high school player, to seeing a black SEC coach when I was a player at the conference, until now I think SEC players can look around and half the league has black coaches, ”the former University of Alabama striker told me before the SEC tournament.

“It’s exciting. In the south, take a good look. I think that shows that the SEC is progressive, but also, just on our institutional campuses, the commitment that the institutions have made ”.

We know that, to allow true diversity within organizations or professions, intentional acts to create such an environment must be considered as a replacement for centuries of intentional acts designed to prevent it. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey says the league is doing just that.

“The Southeastern Conference is proud to remain at the forefront of developing intercollegiate athletics leaders from historically underrepresented populations,” wrote Sankey by email. “The SEC has set the standard for many leaders in women’s basketball, but our commitment to diversity must span all sports and management functions. With eight black women serving as Senior Administrators on SEC campuses, we lead the country in diversity among the SWAs, a group that has produced two Division I Black athletics directors for the past four years, Candice Storey Lee of Vanderbilt and Carla Williams of Virginia ” .

While the efforts of the SEC and its individual institutions are noted, the league’s current black coaches say the most important factor has been their success. This season, three of the seven black coaches in the league participated in the NCAA tournament, all three teams – South Carolina, Georgia and Kentucky – won the first round games and South Carolina advanced to this weekend’s Sweet 16.

“I’m going to give credit to Dawn Staley because she went to South Carolina first and won and was successful,” said Taylor. “Sports directors, presidents, anyone running a program, running a business, they want to win, they want to succeed. It’s like, ‘Hey, let’s look at what Dawn did and do the same thing.’ “

Staley is 13 years old^º year as head coach in South Carolina. She has more than 300 Gamecocks wins, won 76% of her games there and participated in nine NCAA tournaments. She made eight Sweet 16s, two Final Fours and won a national championship in 2017. South Carolina’s victory over Mercer on Sunday was 500 at Staley^º of your career.

“I think I have been part of the success [in terms] of what can happen, ”said Staley. “When we can create that kind of success, it puts a little pressure on the other members of this conference to say, ‘Hey, that might not be a bad idea.’ “

Of course, this question is not whether white coaches can be good coaches or allies or positive influences, what they can be and have been. The question is about equal opportunities for black coaches and options for black players.

“I don’t think the whole group of coaches should look like blacks,” said Staley. “I think it should be much more than what we are seeing, because 50% of the composition of our sport is young black women. This does not mean that other coaches are not good at what they do, white coaches, Asian coaches, whatever. I am not saying that they are not good. I will say this: they will never be able to walk in the shoes of a black woman and be able to navigate through life and tell them how to do it, because it is not just ‘doing the right thing’, it is not ”.

Fargas adopted a similar tone.

“When you look at this game and at all of us who play, about 70% of us are minorities, but the fact that we are in a leadership role does not reflect that,” she said. “The numbers don’t match as much as the number of us who played, which gave our blood, sweat and tears to this game. And then the opportunity to return to the game for which you ran many, many sprints, you plunged to the ground, you had surgery, you tried to rehabilitate yourself, you came back and then the game doesn’t want you. “

The SEC has been the best consensual conference in women’s college basketball this season, thanks in part to the coaches on its sides. It has, by far, the most diverse trainer collection of any Power 5 conference in the country. Other conferences should pay attention if they want to match the success of the SEC on and off the court.