Throughout the season, South Carolina Head Coach Dawn Staley is sharing his thoughts with The Undefeated, narrating a season that was unlike any other in the history of college basketball.
In this edition, Staley discusses the SEC championship victory, remaining a voice for black coaches in the sport and the NCAA memories of his time as a player. South Carolina is currently 22-4 and won first place in the NCAA tournament, that starts on Sunday.
SEC champions
Winning the SEC championship marked the first time in a year that our team actually celebrated something on the basketball court. It was cool because of how we did it and what we had to go through to get it. We felt we deserved it. We put the work in and deserve it, which does not always happen immediately.
It is always a great joy for me to sit and watch our players celebrate at the moment – especially this season.
I had to do a post-game interview as soon as the clock was running out and our players ran to the court. As I walked, I looked back and walked back just to watch them. They are in their element. Are they happy. They are dancing, they are greeting, they are embracing. They just enjoy the moment. And I don’t even think they’re thinking about what they’ve been through all season. It was just them being able to fasten their belts and believe in each other and make that moment worthwhile for them.
When we lost to Tennessee on February 18, it stole a little bit. And then we went back to playing the way we wanted to. In the postseason, we knew that we needed to sit down and talk to people who could put things in perspective.
I brought Felicia and Johnny Allen. We have worked with this couple, who are skill coaches and motivational speakers, for the past probably 10 years.
You are very close to your children. I think they are listening during that time, but I also think that sometimes the monotony of listening to your coaches can affect you, that you almost needed a different voice.
It’s like when you’re growing up in your home with your parents, you don’t understand until you leave them and go out into the world and these people are really saying the same thing. So you think, ‘Hey, maybe my parents are right.’ We had that kind of moment. I think our players are more vulnerable in these sessions as well. It is important at these times because if they really want to win, if they really want to come to understand people and be understood, they have to be vulnerable.
The session before the SEC tournament was probably the best. Aliyah Boston ended up texting me after the session and said, ‘That was good. This was really what we needed. ‘And she left it at that. I didn’t ask any more questions because it’s theirs. I don’t want her to tell me anything that happened at that session, because some things are sacred to this place.
Cool people can not win championships
In our games before the SEC tournament started, we just weren’t hungry. We were very passive in our approach to games, and I think that was because we always had to hit someone’s best punch early in the game.
I think sometimes they are just relaxed. They are in this place of, ‘OK, let me see what they have.’ Some boxers allow their opponent to hit them just to see: ‘Let me feel your strength.’ I think our players sometimes approach it that way. This brings me back to one of the first questions I asked them when we were about to start the season: ‘Can cool people win championships?’
They said, ‘Yes’.
I replied, ‘OK.’
I didn’t believe it, but I had to believe it because they believed it in that moment. Then we had to give them constant reminders that good people cannot win championships. They can not. If you have a good mindset, take advantage of that. And I know that people have taken advantage of us a few times over the course of the season, especially in big games.
In one of our timeouts during our quarter-final game against Alabama – we had a 27 point lead and Alabama reduced it to 7 – I’m like, ‘If you think cool people can win a national championship, are you crazy . You can’t even win the SEC championship by playing the way we do. ‘
I challenged them and went to them a little bit to get them to improve and play. From that moment on, I thought we had the courage. We wanted to do that.
AP images
Giving hope to black coaches
A special part of that weekend was the love I received from black coaches. Before we played against Georgia, which was the first time that two black coaches trained both teams in the championship game, I received a lot of text messages.
‘Congratulations.’
‘Thanks.’
– Keep leading, sister.
‘What a proud moment that Joni Taylor and you are about to show.’
‘Keep being who you are, speaking openly, keep letting them know.’
I feel like if I didn’t say anything about that moment, that would not have been the narrative – and it should have been a narrative.
We cannot turn a blind eye to what has not happened in our game. The representation that has not happened in our game throughout the history of our game.
Am I raising black women? I am absolutely. Am I taking down other coaches, other white coaches or Hispanic coaches or male coaches? No, I’m not saying that at all. I’m talking about a lack of representation, a lack of opportunity. When our black coaches see something like that, I hope you inject something into them to keep pushing, to keep doing what you’re doing to find someone who looks like you in a big game like it was. This has never been done before and it is 2021. This means that black women are not represented.
White coaches don’t have to say that. White coaches don’t have to say, ‘Hey, look at us. We are two competing for a championship, ‘because that is the norm. That was always the norm, until 2021, when Joni and I did what we had to do to find each other. I prayed for that. In fact, I got down on my knees and prayed for it, because it’s time. It’s time to see. It’s time to set an example for other black coaches in this game. It’s just giving us hope that, if someone gives us an opportunity, we can bring that kind of notoriety to our games.
And it wasn’t just the Black coaches who came to me. Our game is not made up of people who despise what happened. I received text messages from people at our conference who were not black. They understand more than any day because of what we went through last year. They have black student-athletes who are training.
If you are not a black coach, you had to have some conversations about how to help your black players navigate what they saw last year. Therefore, coaches are more awake than before. I think it’s a great thing. I think it’s beautiful when you are able to recognize certain things that didn’t happen in our game.
Valuing ‘stolen moments’
A few days after our SEC championship win, I spent the day with my sister. I loved it. We walked around and we just had a good day in Columbia. We like to walk around and look at houses and do that kind of thing – just have fun.
My sister is fine. Your hair is growing again. Is important. She was in the SEC tournament, of course, staying away from everyone. Last year, during that time, she was sick and didn’t know what was going on. But here we are a year later and she is a recipient of a bone marrow transplant. It is a battle every day, but we are grateful.
Moments like these are simple, but they are stolen moments – you don’t notice them very often. They are important, to be able to decompress, to be able to simply take your mind off the hustle and bustle of the season. Certainly, if we didn’t win the SEC tournament championship, I probably wouldn’t have been able to enjoy it that much.
Tournament time
As a player, I always wanted to play the tournament. We were a team, for three of my four years we were candidates for the national title. The thirst for getting one was a priority. That’s all I thought about. I didn’t think about prizes, I didn’t think about any of that. I just wanted to win a national championship. I think I deserved one. We didn’t win one, but we deserved it. I don’t think it was meant to be. But I gave my all.
I don’t look back and think, ‘I wish I could have done that.‘
Well, maybe a possession. Maybe two.
The national championship against Tennessee in 1991. Tennessee tied the score at 60-60 and we had the ball about six seconds to go. My team approached me at the opposite baseline and I’m running down the track. I passed almost everyone and, in my mind, I was like, ‘How am I going to celebrate?’ I’m thinking, ‘That’s it’. I think I went from right to left, I took my two steps and I was making my tray to the left, and then Dena Head, the person I won, kind of blocked it. I thought she cheated on me, but they’re not going to call it that in this situation, and I’m thinking I should have pretended. They were going to miss me in this situation, and the way she blocked my kick, she would have missed me, I would have gone for the free throw line.
A year later, against Stanford in the Final Four, we lost the ball one in the final seconds. The ball somehow left the field and the horn sounded. The officers just left, like, ball game. I ran into the tunnel and picked up the officers. I went into the tunnel and said, ‘No, we have more time on the clock.’ They came back, put 0.8 seconds on the clock. I remember Stanford putting Angela Taylor on. She hadn’t played the entire game, so she was cold. We had a possession. I made my cut on the ball, caught the ball and just threw it 26 feet. If I had stopped, if I had stopped in the middle of the cut, it would have soiled me and I would have gone for the free-throw line.
Obviously, I had a great time at the NCAA tournament, but the two that stand out the most are those in which I should have had more common sense. Those games were 30 years ago and I can see them quite clearly, and I don’t think I have a good memory.
As much as I try to preach to our players that during the postseason you are the same team that you were for most of the season, I admit that I get a little tense this time of year. I am more excited and more demanding of attention to detail. And God knows, don’t let me have coffee with a cup of espresso. It’s on.
I think our players like it. I think it helps them and takes them to where we need to be, because, again, they can be cool again. They compete. They compete in practice. It’s not like they’re not competing. It’s just that they don’t play with an advantage. So, I had to train with an advantage and I had to create that advantage for them, because people will reach out to them. They will come to them.
I think this year’s tournament is open, I think. This has not been a normal women’s basketball season – the best teams have lost a few games and lost to teams that have not qualified.
The NCAA tournament is anyone’s game. And if it’s anyone’s game – why not us?