As a player, Dawn Staley’s basketball resume stacks up with the best of them. Staley was a 2x College Player of the Year, 6x WNBA All-Star, 3x Olympic Gold Medallist, and her number 24 jersey was retired by her alma mater Virginia.
Yet as good as she was a player, she may be an even better head coach.
Following their 64-49 victory over UConn in the Women’s Championship game last night, Dawn Staley has entered rarified air in basketball coaching circles. Only 8 programs in NCAA history have captured 2 or more National Championships, a group which Staley’s squad is now a part of.
Prior to her arriving in Columbia, SC, the Gamecocks made only two NCAA tournament appearances between 1991 and 2008. Since then, they’ve enjoyed a run of success that would turn even the blue blood programs of college basketball green with envy.
In her 14 years at the helm, the former WNBA All-Star has completely revitalized the South Carolina program going 366-105 during that span, good for a .777 win percentage. Her teams have made every NCAA tournament since 2011, have won two national championships, made 4 Final Fours, and likely would have had a 3rd title if not for COVID cancelling the 2019-20 event (South Carolina was 32-1 before the shutdown).
This year her team went wire to wire as the AP number one ranked team in the country, and were 14-0 against other top 25 programs on the season. The Gamecocks stifling defense held opponents to only 45.5pts per game throughout the tournament, which marks the second lowest total in NCAA history.
Not to mention, Staley and Co. dethroned a living legend in Geno Auriemma who prior to Sunday was 11-0 in National Championship games.
Yet coach Staley’s exploits at South Carolina only tell part of the story. Her ability to work with athletes of all ages, and see immediate success is nothing short of remarkable. In her role with USA Basketball, her teams have captured gold at: FIBA U18’s, U19 Worlds, Pan American Games, FIBA AmeriCup (twice), the World Cup, and the Olympic Games.
Her demonstrated ability to work with teenagers, collegiate athletes, and the best the WNBA has to offer shows her versatility and ability to connect with players on a level deeper than just basketball. That skillset now has many openly wondering whether a jump to the NBA could be in the future for coach Staley.
In a 2021 interview with Kurt Streeter of the New York Times, Staley mentioned how she wasn’t actively campaigning for an NBA position, but believed she had the necessary skills to excel should an opportunity present itself. “I come with a lot of credentials,” she said. “I surely have the confidence. I surely can stand in front of men and lead them. First-team All-Stars. MVPs. I’m OK with that.”
Many believed that former Spurs assistant Becky Hammon might have been in line to become the first female head coach in the NBA. However after missing out on the Portland Trailblazers job, she signed on for a record sum to become the next head coach of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces.
Inevitably as the 2021-22 NBA season winds down, front offices will be taking long hard looks at the future of their franchises. With that comes some offseason hirings & firings. And with no clear cut “favourites” this offseason to take over potential vacancies, could this be the year that the association finally anoints a woman as head coach?
Looking across the NBA landscape, teams could elect to go with some re-treads in coaches like Mike Brown, or Dave Joerger, or finally decide to roll the dice on whether Staley’s proven ability to connect with players of all ages will work at the NBA level.
While the Gamecocks will be revelling in their victory for the next few days, don’t be surprised to hear Staley’s name pop up on the NBA coaching carousel this offseason. For the moment however, the 51 year old remains focused on her NCAA career, and continues to blaze a trail for other black head coaches in the sport.
“There aren’t a lot of Black coaches that experience this type of success because we don’t really see it very often,” Staley told Craig Melvin on the TODAY show. “And now we have done it again in 2022, so it’s happening a little bit more frequently for us…And I hope I just am a beacon of hope for other Black coaches just to keep on keeping on, because you can have success at this level when given an opportunity and when you work hard.”
Perhaps that next opportunity for Staley will come at the NBA level.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Gamecock Central. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.