<p><p>TAMPA, Fla. – Each of the past two seasons, an iconic women’s basketball player has entered the final weekend of the NCAA Tournament in search of a national championship.</p></p><p><p>In 2024, it was Iowa guard Caitlin Clark. This year, it’s UConn’s Paige Bueckers.</p></p><p><p>But South Carolina coach Dawn Staley doesn’t want people to forget who’s been on the <em>other</em> side of those title game matchups: Her Gamecocks (35-3), who are making their fifth consecutive Final Four appearance and could win back-to-back titles on Sunday.</p></p><p><p>Fans of the sport got the matchup that most were rooting for as South Carolina handled Texas and UConn (36-3) blew out UCLA in Final Four games on Friday night at Tampa’s Amalie Arena, setting up a title game matchup between iconic programs.</p></p><p><p>That was the case last year, too, as the Gamecocks took on Iowa and Clark, the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer, in the 2024 championship game in Cleveland.</p></p><p><p>Speaking at a news conference Saturday, Staley was asked about Bueckers’ legacy and how winning or not winning a national title would impact how she’s compared to other women’s basketball greats.</p></p><p><p>South Carolina’s coach, who was asked a similar question about Clark leading into last year’s title game, said she wanted to “tread lightly” in her response.</p></p><p><p>But her point was clear: When people focus on singular players such as Clark and Bueckers, “we tend to forget the narrative about what our kids have been able to do in going for their third in four years,” Staley said from Amalie Arena.</p></p><p><p>And she argued that framing the past two title games around those questions – either Clark or Bueckers finishing their careers with a championship – actually hurts the Gamecocks’ perception.</p></p><p><p>“When you put a narrative out there, everybody sees that, and it puts us at a disadvantage, whether you want to believe so or not,” Staley said. “Officials see it. It’s all over TikTok. It’s all over SportsCenter. It’s all over all of that.”</p></p><p><h3>‘There’s room to do both’</h3></p><p><p>Although Staley did not name any specific outlets, she critiqued the national women’s basketball media at large for how it covered last year’s South Carolina-Iowa national championship. South Carolina won 87-75 to complete a 38-0 season.</p></p><p><p>But “everything was about Caitlin Clark and her legacy and her ability to win a national championship,” Staley said. “Yet we were coming into this thing undefeated, doing something that’s unprecedented at the time, because it’s hard. It’s hard.”</p></p><p><p>Now, with UConn and Bueckers on the other side?</p></p><p><p>“We find ourselves back here in a similar situation,” Staley said.</p></p><p><p>South Carolina’s coach emphasized she was not trying to take attention away from Bueckers. She described UConn’s star senior guard as a great player who will be the No. 1 WNBA draft pick this month, an Olympian and “all those things.”</p></p><p><p>But Staley said she felt compelled to go to bat for her team, too. The Gamecocks lost Final Four Most Outstanding Player Kamilla Cardoso from last year’s roster and lost another key forward, Ashlyn Watkins, to a season-ending injury in January.</p></p><p><p>They also dropped three regular-season games for the first time since 2020-21 and had some lean moments early in the NCAA Tournament. South Carolina trailed Indiana at halftime in the round of 32 and Maryland and Duke in the fourth quarters of the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight, respectively.</p></p><p><p>But the Gamecocks have won 12 games in a row and are right back at their usual spot. They hold the second-longest Final Four streak in Division I history and they can become the sport’s first repeat champion since UConn 11 years ago.</p></p><p><p>“I want the sentiments to be about our players and what our players have been able to do – equally, because there’s room to do both,” Staley said. “We can raise Paige up because she deserves that and raise our players up because they deserve that.”</p></p><p><p>A longtime supporter and promoter of women’s basketball, Staley said the sport has grown to the point where it’s realistic and feasible for “all of us to be covered.”</p></p><p><p>That applies to Clark, Bueckers, South Carolina and everyone else.</p></p><p><p>“Let’s not choose one player over another player’s history,” Staley said. “Because we’re all creating history for our game.”</p></p>
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