The starter for the game is on the bench. The South Carolina women's basketball coach claps and encourages her team from her seated position, occasionally getting up to relay instructions or give a referee an earful. You know, as she does.
It is a brisk December night in Columbia, just a few days before Christmas, and top-ranked South Carolina is hosting second-ranked and defending national champion Stanford. The holiday cheer quickly fades as the Cardinal bury South Carolina in the second quarter. A rolled-up piece of paper is being held by a woman who is pointing to the spots where she wants her players to go. The rolled-up tube is getting crushed under the pressure of the palm of the woman. A win on this night would help the scars from the tournament loss a year ago. The board is making that look unlikely.
As South Carolina begins to chip away at the lead, she rises to her feet. She shakes the paper in her hand and stomps. She pulls her mask down so that her team can hear what she is saying. So there is no misunderstanding. She demands more from her team.
There is a unique place in women's basketball. Since 2015, South Carolina has led the nation in attendance every season thanks to the coach who turned the program from an SEC afterthought to a perennial championship contender. As a Black woman with a youthful spirit who has accomplished everything her players hope to accomplish for themselves, she reflects possibility. She is an advocate for fellow Black coaches. She has been called "America's point guard" by the only other black woman to coach a basketball national champion.
She needs her players to absorb the possibility. Five years after winning their first national title, South Carolina and Staley are still looking for a second. There have been deep runs, heartbreakings and a COVID-19-canceled tournament, but a coach with the substance and style of Staley needs an encore or two. The group of players on this team have the ability to do it. She ponders. They need to absorb. They do on this night. South Carolina came back from 18 points down to win its perfect season with a 65-61 victory. She bows to the crowd, walks onto the court and gives her players a pat on the back.
An endless stream of wisdom has been created by the time of Staley. Sometimes that stream takes the form of a tranquil fountain for her players to soak up, and sometimes it sprays upon her players like a fire hose.
Associate head coach and long time friend Lisa Boyer says that she loves on them. I think they are aware of the fairness. I think they know that she is genuine. It is not a fairy tale. She is telling them the deal.
The legendary burgers off her home grill, the crashing of Destanni Henderson's postgame interview following a win, and the hug she gives a struggling Zia Cooke are just some of the things she does. The benching of a budding star for the greater good of the team is one of the demands on accountability after an unexpected loss. Go with the flow by swimming upstream with the fountain and fire hose. She says the game expects of her and what she expects of them.
"I owe basketball, and I'm forever indebted to it." It changed my life for the better. The game has gotten more time for me than my friends and family. I feel like it can affect my players lives on a smaller scale.
Staley was the youngest of five children and lived in North Philadelphia. She played with boys on the legendary Philly asphalt. She would hold her ball to the court if they let her play.
Staley was a guard at Dobbins Technical High School. USA Today named her the national player of the year in 1988. She put a rubber band on one wrist to show the discipline she learned from her parents. Each time she committed a turnover, she snapped it.
She would have small marks on her wrists, according to former University of Virginia teammate.
The University of Rhode Island has a coach who still likes to refer to her as Dawnie. They were both high school students. She was a bit of a celebrity when she attended the Blue Star Invitational Camp.
The top players scrimmaged at night in front of college coaches. It was during those games that the two of them got to know each other. She was very shy during the day, despite the stream of people approaching her.
The University of Virginia had a suite with different roommates for the two of them. They traded their roommates for each other. Both of them were night owls. The original roommates were old ladies.
As a student at Virginia, Staley was the same shy player that Reiss met at camp. She didn't seek the spotlight and hated doing news conferences. She was on the court. Virginia has made three straight Final Four appearances. She came up short each time. The 1991 championship loss against Tennessee in overtime was the worst. It is one of only two championship games to go into overtime. Ryan doesn't like talking about it.
She fixated on the result despite being named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player. It was over and over in her apartment.
She felt what it was like to cut down the net after the championship was elusive. It was not where she expected. She expected it in the role.
As she hurries to get out of the rain, she closes her jacket. She is not yet ready to close the book on 2021. The 4-year-old scurries in front of her. She brushes off the rain as she walks into the basketball offices.
The move to assign Staley to the team was designed to take advantage of her name recognition in Virginia. The ABL folded in 1998. She was drafted ninth overall by the Charlotte Sting in 1999. The Rockers assistant coach was Boyer. She was there in 2000 when Staley called her to talk. She said that Temple wanted her to coach the basketball team.
I'm like, "Hell, no, you're not doing that." When she was told that Temple wanted her to speak at the Final Four in Philadelphia, she was adamant. She knows how it ended.
While still playing in the NBA, she took the job at Temple. She wanted Boyer to go with her, but she didn't want to leave Cleveland. Staley was adamant. In the summer of 2000 she tried to get Boyer. No chance. She tried again in 2001. The man declined again. She called almost every day in the spring and summer of 2002. You go to Temple?
He relented just in time for the 2002-03 season, but only if he could win a national championship.
Staley said that they were going to do that.
It took a few seasons and a relocation, but now whenever the two of them enter their offices, they pass the national championship trophy from South Carolina. All of her former players at South Carolina and Temple, along with her University of Virginia teammates, received a replica national trophy at her own expense, just as she sent a piece of the net to every Black woman coach in Division I. Each one has a plaque with the words "Because of you."
Staley sits behind her desk. Champ laps at the water and eats his food in the middle of the office floor. There is a coffee table in one corner of the room. A tote with the words "My vice president is a woman" rests on a chair. There are three Olympic jerseys that hang on the wall, a reminder of where she has been and where she wants her players to go. A photo of her with Barack Obama is out of view for everyone but her.
She sips on a skinny caramel macchiato before she combs her hair into a tight ponytail. Her hair is black but there are a few hints of gray visible from a few feet away. It is a good day. The night before, South Carolina avenged its only loss of the season with a victory over Mississippi State. There is good news out of Philadelphia.
The Eagles are in the playoffs.
As the coaching staff files into her office, she asks for a few different shot charts. Fred Chmiel and Jolette Law are also in her office. The two met while he was an assistant for the Charlotte Sting. He joined the staff at Temple from 2006 to 2008 and then returned to Columbia in 2015. Law, a South Carolina native and former Iowa star who started her coaching career in 1994, joined Staley's staff in 2017: after serving as an assistant at Tennessee.
Even though South Carolina won against Mississippi State, she isn't satisfied.
Staley has an idea that is a little different. She is not sure if it will work. As the film session goes on, it becomes clear that there is a problem. There are a couple of problems. Boston, a 6-foot-5 forward, isn't getting as many touches early in the game for Staley's liking. Boston, the favorite to win national player of the year, took two shots in the first half against Mississippi State. Boston's defender is prone to sagging off of her during fast breaks and is also prone to blocking the lane. The opposing team would have to guard Boston everywhere if that defender was moved out of there.
She has a solution to put in a new set. Excuse me, I'm taking a break, not a set. The technical precision in how they all approach coaching is underscored by the back-and-forth between Staley and her skeptical coaching staff. This is what she means when she says the game has gotten more from her than her family. She is obsessed with basketball. Her mind is always moving. She would never fall asleep if she didn't put the TV on before bed. Excuse me, take a break. It doesn't matter to Staley that she's often highlighted for her top-notch recruiting classes and ability to connect with and motivate players, rather than being praised from a basketball perspective. She knows that she is trying to pay off her debt.
Staley says that he doesn't really care for people to say that. I think it is coming up more now that we are winning on a bigger stage. Without knowing the game and X-ing and O-ing, you cannot have the same success. It is flattering when you can make the game look easy. That is when you have arrived.
Her players are aware of that truth. They signed up to come to South Carolina because of that. She knows exactly what we are going through because she has already been through it. She knows what she is talking about.
Against Missouri a few days ago, she felt like she made the right adjustment, but that wasn't the case. She thought that the zone they were working on might be a good idea to try out. She brought it up in a huddle with her staff. The man-to-man defense was not working that night. I'm just like, don't falter, this is what we do.
Missouri. The loss is inescapable in the days after. She approaches her coaching with three words: look, sound, and feel. Missouri did not feel good. It still doesn't. She says she is a sore loser. She is eaten up by it. The only loss for South Carolina this season has been at Missouri.
On the court and off, there is a history with Missouri. There were four losses in Columbia, Missouri, an on-court brawl, a war of words, and a lawsuit that resulted in a $50,000 settlement for Staley, half of which went to her attorneys and half to her Innersole foundation. South Carolina and Missouri are drama cities. It's unsurprising that South Carolina has only lost one game this season and that it came against a short-handed Missouri squad.
I always thank God for the victories and losses, says Staley. As much as I pray and as much as I know who is in charge of my life, I blacked out for a moment and I couldn't get out because it was all me. I could have snapped out of my power quicker if I had thought about it.
She is sitting behind her desk and talking about the Missouri loss. She has, though. Tomorrow will be a fire hose day.
The scouting report for the LSU game rests in her lap as she sits in a chair with her legs crossed. Champ is next to her. Team members are scattered in front of her in their own chairs facing the two large television screens in the film area of the Carolina Coliseum. The coaching staff and the players want to show off the good stuff made during the Mississippi State game, but first they want to confront the mistakes.
Staley calls out commentary as Chmiel moves through the clips. When junior guard Brea Beal cuts to the basket and scores thanks to a seal from sophomore transfer Kamilla Cardoso, she is ecstatic.
She praises good execution and needles when they are missing. As the tape is being rolled on the turnovers, a constant source of frustration for the coaching staff, Staley waits for her players to say something. Anything.
She asks how we get better.
When no one answers, she demands an answer.
The senior guard spoke up.
Chmiel resumed the film after she nodded her approval. In the middle of a section about offensive execution from South Carolina, she chews faster on the stirrer still resting in a corner of her mouth. She is stewing. Something doesn't feel right
She says that all of them turn the page too fast. The group is not loud. The specific moment on film is not covered by the comment. It is not immediately clear what Staley is talking about. It becomes clear after that. The loss of Missouri and how the Gamecocks responded immediately is something that is being talked about by the coach.
She says that if losing doesn't take your appetite away, you're playing the wrong sport.
Your goals will not be achieved. That is what this is about, but more than that. It isn't just about the goals each player has for the season, it's about the goals each player has for herself. Staley wants them to achieve. She needs them to invest now, in this season.
She praises senior forward Victaria Saxton for her improvement. Boston is praised for her hard work. When Henderson was a sophomore, she was told she would be coming off the bench even when she was good enough to start.
What do you say, Henny? Henderson does not respond loudly. She don't say much.
She says to find out who your favorite is on the team and ask yourself why. There are people here who have stories and testimonies. It's time to tap in.
Getting the most out of all of her players is a challenge. They are not responding in the way she wants them to. Not everyone is getting it. She was talking about that during the film session.
They want you to play them without the work, without the discipline, without the success, without the data that backs up why you play. I cannot get them to comprehend. I can not get that part of it. I can make them come to my office. I want it to be them, so they can know later on in life, whether they are playing professionally or in a different profession, that when you take the initiative, you are showing somebody you want more.
She wants the best for us and demands the effort, Henderson says. I feel like those challenges help mold us and make us stronger.
The expectations are clear. A plan is provided by Staley. She tells you where to go and what to do. I will set a screen and roll if she says so. I don't care who is in my way. I am getting down there.
Simple. Boston reiterates that word a few times. When South Carolina was running through a set in practice, the guards kept throwing up shots when the coach wanted them to pass into the high post.
She said she wanted a post touch. It is simple.
She let them know that she was happy. Simple.
These young people are how they operate now. If you add a little old school to it, it works out.
Freshman Sania Feagin walks into the film area for a final session to prepare for the LSU game hours before the game. As Feagin settles in, Staley calls.
"Ankle works today!" she says, chuckling at her own joke.
Feagin rolled his ankle in practice. She was supported as she walked off the court. As Feagin was able to walk, Staley led the team in a chorus of Walk It Out.
Feagin looks over to Littleton.
The players move to the court for drills. Staley is trying to get more out of them. More effort. More focused. A second national championship will not come like this. She needs more. More from everyone.
Each group of three must make five layups during a timed drill. They have to start over if they miss a layup. The last group is struggling. They have to restart.
Staley says you have plenty of time. The same group has to restart.
As time runs out, the group pulls up, exhausted from running. The instructions for running in the middle were given by Staley. She needs to get out in front. The group gets some respite from the pep talk. They finish the drill five times. No restart is required.
Starbucks is hanging out of a corner of her mouth as she scoots onto the scorer's table on the sideline. Champ is running by her feet. She says she is good.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
