Blueprint: Staley laying foundation

‘OUR FUTURE IS BRIGHT’

Staley developing blueprint for another championship team

Dawn Staley has had mature players and mature teams over the course of her 12-plus seasons at South Carolina, but there was something special — something unique — about her 2019-20 group.

The head coach talked multiple times throughout the year about the team’s professionalism and positive attitude, both on and off the court.

“It’s definitely been a breath of fresh air having the players that we have,” Staley told fans at the My Carolina Coaches Dinner before the season began.

The coach even, for the first time, let players have a say in team rules for the season.

On-court success — mixed with the team’s dynamic skill set, of course — followed as the Gamecocks finished the season 32-1 and were undefeated in winning the SEC regular-season championship and the SEC Tournament. They were ranked No. 1 in the nation when the NCAA Tournament was canceled due to the coronavirus.

By Josh Hyber | Staff writer • Photos by Artie Walker Jr. and Jenny Dilworth

“Our future is bright. We’re in a great place. I’ve never been part of a collection of human beings that really get it,” Staley said in a Zoom teleconference with reporters in midApril. “… I’m the one that’s supposed to be there checking on them and just making sure they’re OK and they’re in a good place.

“But a lot of them have reached out and asked if I’m alright. That’s really never happened before. … It has with some players [like Aleighsha Welch and A’ja Wilson], but now it’s multiple players.”

Something the players are also doing? Expressing a desire to get back to Columbia to start on-court preparations for the 2020-21 season.

“They’re missing it. They’re missing being in Columbia, South Carolina,” Staley said, alluding to South Carolina’s campus shutdown because of COVID-19.

But the blueprints for the 2020-21 season are already being drawn.

Staley and her coaching staff have a weekly meeting to discuss recruiting and the state of the program. They then have another call with additional staffers and the team’s entire roster.

“I’m trying to utilize this time we have now to just think, to think about the possibilities we have next year,” Staley said. “Just trying to create championship behavior through virtual meetings. We’re talking a lot with our staff.”

In late March, Staley and her team closed the book on its 2019-20 season. In the meeting she asked her players three questions: What do you want in the future? What are you worried about? What are you working on?

A lot were worried about when they could come back to campus.

Staley called her team resilient. They have dealt with the stipulations that come with the campus shutdown and gyms in their hometowns that are also closed down.

At the end of all this, there will be basketball. Eventually. But right now there’s a hole in the days of coaches and players who have dedicated their lives to the sport.

“I’m always going to appreciate the game. … I love basketball. I mean, it is my passion. I’ve built my entire life around it,” Staley said. “… It is the driving force behind what I do every single day. And still is. But sometimes you’ve got to pivot, and you’ve got to think about the impact of what’s really happening out there in the world.

“And it’s OK to slide [basketball] to the side to make sure everyone’s loved ones are in a good place and not impacted, health-wise. Mentally, I think it takes a toll on all of us.

“But the game will come back in at some point. I don’t know in what capacity, but it will come back and we will love on it like we have. But I hope it happens soon.”

NEW LEADERSHIP

South Carolina will have just one senior next season — LeLe Grissett — with Ty Harris and Mikiah Herbert Harrigan having graduated and moved on to the WNBA (see pages 16-17).

But Staley said returning captain Victaria Saxton — who averaged 5.4 points and 3.9 rebounds in 15.5 minutes per game — has led the team through its early offseason.

“She is leading the young group, but the young group is very aware,” the coach said. “They are very aware of what needs to take place. Overall, this team, it’s quite incredible. I wish I could document what’s happening. … Just the conversations that they have with each other, the conversations that they have with our coaching staff and everyone that makes up our program.

“They just say things that you just don’t think young people should know or be aware of at this stage of the game. All of that is intact.”

Staley pointed to Saxton as the team’s leader this past summer when Harris was at the Pan-Am Games playing for USA Basketball.

“She was our captain. She was our leader,” she said.

Though recruiting has been “very difficult” with coronavirus restrictions, Staley and her staff do “a lot of FaceTiming” and “a lot of texting” and, of course, make tons of phone calls.

Staley said it’s “unpredictable” whether or not recruits will be allowed to make official visits to South Carolina to see the basketball facilities and campus. One of her biggest recruiting tools is having players on her current roster interact in-person and on social media

with incoming recruits, and now that won’t happen.

Luckily for South Carolina, most of the players the team is recruiting on the transfer wire are players Staley recruited out of high school and already have a relationship with.

“We are in the market for some players we feel could fit on our roster and on our team,” Staley said.

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