South Carolina W Basketball

The NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament championship game is set. No. 1 South Carolina will face No. 1 Iowa after a pair of exciting Final Four matchups on Friday night.

The Gamecocks took down No. 3 NC State 78-59 to advance to the national championship game. The Wolfpack kept things close through the first half, but as it has done plenty of times this season, South Carolina used a huge run to pull away and win comfortably. The Gamecocks came out of the locker room on fire, outscoring NC State 29-6 in the third quarter to put the game out of reach.

Star center Kamilla Cardoso led the way for South Carolina with 22 and 11 rebounds. The senior has had an outstanding postseason showing and is looking to close out her career on a positive note.

Now the Gamecocks will look for their second national championship in the last three seasons and their third in program history.

They will have to get through a tough Iowa team first.

The Hawkeyes' 71-69 win over No. 3 UConn was much less comfortable than South Carolina's win. The Huskies did a tremendous job containing Caitlin Clark for most of the game and held her to single-digit scoring through the first half.

Clark found some life in the second half and ultimately propelled her team to the win behind 21 points. Her co-star Hannah Stuelke also had a big performance with 23 points on an efficient 9-of-12 from the field.

Now, Iowa will play in the national championship game for a second year in a row, and it will be looking for different results this time around.

No matter who South Carolina would have been matched up with, it would have been the Gamecocks' game to lose. South Carolina has been dominant all year and hasn't let up in the tournament, winning each of its games by double digits aside from the Sweet 16 matchup with No. 4 Indiana.

The Gamecocks are a defensive powerhouse, allowing just 56 points per game, which ranks second among Power 6 schools. But as most champions, they possess a strong offense as well, scoring 85.6 points per game, which trails just Iowa and LSU.

South Carolina doesn't necessarily have a player that can take over the game the way Clark does, but the Gamecocks rely on the committee and stout defense to win games, and it works.

For Iowa, its X-factor is clearly Clark, who has been the best player in the country this year and is hungry for a championship to close out her tremendous career. Clark's scoring has been undeniable throughout the tournament, but UConn showed that she can at least be contained on Friday.

The Huskies often looked to double teams and face-guarding Clark 30 feet from the basket, which limited her to her lowest point total of the postseason. If South Carolina can replicate that defense it could walk away with a championship.

But luckily for Iowa, Clark is a gifted passer as well. If her teammates can get open when the Gamecocks inevitably bring the double team on Clark, she likely will find them.

Friday's Final Four matchup was promising for Iowa. Stuelke's ability to step up with Clark having a slow start paid dividends, and the Hawkeyes will need some assistance from her again in the national championship.

The Hawkeyes have the best offense in the country by a long shot, scoring 91.9 points per game. Their defense is a different story, though, giving up 71.5 points per game. It's unlikely Iowa will be able to fully contain South Carolina's offense, but it will need to play its best defense of the season while hitting shots at the other end to hand the Gamecocks their first loss of the year.

Ultimately, Sunday's contest should be one of the most exciting games of the year. Clark is looking to put the cherry on top of her legendary career, while South Carolina is looking to continue its new tradition of hanging national championship banners. It's the final women's basketball game of the season, and fans are in for a show.

Sunday's game will tip-off at 3 p.m. ET at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio. The matchup will be broadcast on ABC.

South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley has won the Associated Press women's college basketball Coach of the Year award for a second time.

Staley has led the Gamecocks to a 36-0 record despite losing all five starters from last year's team. The Gamecocks are searching for their third national championship under Staley, who also led South Carolina to victories in 2017 and 2022.

Staley earned 27 of a possible 35 votes from a national media panel that also decides the AP's Top 25 poll.

USC's Lindsay Gottlieb, Syracuse's Felisha Legette-Jack and Oregon State's Scott Rueck each had two votes apiece, tying for second. All votes were tallied before the NCAA tournament began.

Staley is now just the fifth coach to win the award on multiple occasions, with the other four being Geno Auriemma, Muffet McGraw, Kim Mulkey and Brenda Frese. Auriemma has won the award nine times since its inception in 1995.

Staley is a former superstar point guard who has won the Naismith Award as both a player and a coach. A member of the Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2013, Staley has also won three Olympic gold medals with Team USA (1996, 2000, 2004). In the pros, Staley earned WNBA All-Star honors on six occasions.

Staley coached Temple from 2000-2008 before moving to South Carolina. She's led the Gamecocks to a 438-106 record and six Final Fours, including four straight. South Carolina also had the nation's top team in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the NCAA tournament.

Now Staley and the Gamecocks are focused on winning another national title. Up next is a Final Four date with North Carolina State on Friday. The winner will head to Sunday's national championship to face either Iowa or UConn.

A third straight Werner Ladder Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year Award could beckon for South Carolina's Dawn Staley, who's one of four finalists for the annual honor.

Iowa's Lisa Bluder, Stanford's Tara VanDerveer and USC's Lindsay Gottlieb round out the field, which was announced Monday.

🚨 ATTENTION🚨: Introducing the 2024 @wernerladderco Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year Finalists🔥#WernerLadderNaismith pic.twitter.com/lRFgzWplPU

— Naismith Awards (@NaismithTrophy) March 25, 2024

No coach has ever pulled off a Naismith three-peat to illustrate the history Staley is up against. It's almost impossible to look past her, however, given what South Carolina achieved prior to the NCAA tournament.

The Gamecocks had to replace their leader in points (Zia Cooke) and rebounds (Aliyah Boston). Also going out the door were SEC All-Defensive honoree Brea Beal, Laeticia Amihere and Victaria Saxton.

To the extent a program like South Carolina could have a down year, this was shaping up to be a down year. Instead, the team went a perfect 32-0 heading into March Madness against one of the toughest schedules in the country.

Calling this the best coaching job of Staley's tenure in Columbia may not be a stretch. Freshman guard MiLaysia Fulwiley has already emerged as a star, center Kamilla Cardoso has taken her game to a different level to fill the void left by Boston. And guard Te-Hina Paopao seamlessly transitioned into the backcourt following her transfer from Oregon.

Anything other than an unprecedented Naismith win for Staley will come as a bit of a surprise.

Should the voters look in a different direction, Gottlieb built a compelling case with how much the Trojans overachieved relative to their preseason expectations.

The arrival of guard JuJu Watkins brought a buzz to the program that hasn't been seen in a while, yet nobody could've foreseen just how good she'd be already and what it would mean for USC.

Watkins averaged the second-most points (26.9) in Division I and powered her team to a 26-5 record and a Pac-12 conference title.

USC was more than just a one-woman show as wing McKenzie Forbes joined her on the All-Pac-12 team and center Rayah Marshall was an honorable mention.

The Trojans made steady progress under Gottlieb, going from 12 wins in 2021-22 to 21 in 2022-23. Now, fans aren't wrong for thinking the heyday of the "Women of Troy" is soon to become a reality again.

When it comes to Bluder and VanDerveer, voters could be swayed by the way in which their respective programs maintained their consistent success.

Looking to improve on its national runner-up finish, Iowa went into the season without forward Monika Czinano and wing McKenna Warnock. The Hawkeyes didn't bring in any major reinforcements through high school recruiting or the transfer portal, either.

Thanks largely to the singular brilliance of star Caitlin Clark, Iowa managed to notch 29 wins and claim the Big Ten tournament crown to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Like Bluder, VanDerveer lost a pair of important contributors from 2022-23. Haley Jones moved on to the WNBA and Lauren Betts transferred to UCLA. In the case of the latter, her 14.7 points and 9.0 rebounds per game offer a glimpse into what the Cardinal were missing.

With Cameron Brink leading the way, Stanford nonetheless managed to have the Pac-12's best record (15-3) and reached the final of the conference tournament.

South Carolina's Dawn Staley, USC's Lindsay Gottlieb and Iowa's Lisa Bluder lead the semifinalists for the 2024 Werner Ladder Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year Award.

Staley has led South Carolina to an undefeated 32-0 record overall and is the favorite to win among the eight semifinalists:

• Jennie Baranczyk (Oklahoma)
• Lisa Bluder (Iowa)
• Kenny Brooks (Virginia Tech)
• Lisa Fortier (Gonzaga)
• Lindsay Gottlieb (USC)
• Felisha Legette-Jack (Syracuse)
• Kevin McGuff (Ohio State)
• Vic Schaefer (Texas)
• Dawn Staley (South Carolina)
• Tara Vanderveer (Stanford)

🚨ATTENTION🚨: Introducing the 2024 @wernerladderco Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year Semifinalists🔥#WernerLadderNaismith pic.twitter.com/kKl20HqJXq

— Naismith Awards (@NaismithTrophy) March 14, 2024

Staley is a three-time Coach of the Year winner and would be taking home her third straight honor if she wins the trophy this season. She would be the first coach to win three straight COY honors and would join Geno Auriemma and Pat Summitt as the only two coaches with four total awards.

It's hard to see much in the way of competition considering every other Top 10 team has at least four losses while South Carolina is undefeated.

However, Lisa Fortier has Gonzaga seemingly on the verge of its first deep NCAA Tournament run in nearly a decade, and Gottlieb has turned around the USC program in just three years. The Trojans' 26-5 record is their best mark in 30 years, and they won their first conference tournament in a decade.

If voters are having a bit of Staley fatigue, Gottlieb would likely be the best bet for an upset victory.

Auriemma, who set the record with eight COY selections, is not a semifinalist. The UConn legend has not taken home the award since 2017.

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No. 1 South Carolina remained perfect on Saturday after Kamilla Cardoso's buzzer-beating three helped prevent an upset loss at the hands of unranked Tennessee in the SEC women's basketball tournament semifinal.

With the Gamecocks trailing by two points and 11 seconds remaining, a missed three-pointer from sophomore guard Raven Johnson appeared to end hopes of a comeback. However, two missed free throws by Tennessee gave head coach Dawn Staley's team one last shot.

Johnson inbounded the ball to Cardoso, who connected on a game-winning three with no time remaining. It was the first three-point field goal of her collegiate career, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

KAMILLA. FREAKING. CARDOSO!!! pic.twitter.com/KxV40Osnhe

— South Carolina Women's Basketball (@GamecockWBB) March 9, 2024

GAMECOCKS REMAIN UNDEFEATED! KAMILLA CARDOSO SCORES HER FIRST CAREER THREE AT THE BUZZER!#NCAAWBB x 📸 @GamecockWBB pic.twitter.com/RtBX99HJMv

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) March 10, 2024

KAMILLA CARDOSO.

SHE BANKS IN A 3 AT THE BUZZER TO KEEP SOUTH CAROLINA'S UNDEFEATED SEASON ALIVE.

WHAT. A. GAME.

— Alexa Philippou (@alexaphilippou) March 9, 2024

Kamilla Cardoso didn’t shoot a single three pointer in 4 years of College Basketball. She was 0-0.

First 3-Pointer of her career banks in to keep a perfect 36-0 season alive for South Carolina. https://t.co/Sri0sID4JY

— Kyle Ledbetter ☀️ (@SportsDSD_) March 9, 2024

South Carolina remains undefeated as Kamilla Cardoso banked in her first-EVER 3-pointer at the buzzer to beat Tennessee 74-73.
Cardoso's game-winner was her only attempt outside the paint on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/ZUnEyedbgR

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 10, 2024

Wow. What a shout by South Carolina. I'm rooting for that undefeated season. Goodness.

— J. Capers (@TheCapersEffect) March 9, 2024

KAMILLA CARDOSO!! South Carolina’s undefeated season remains alive

— Otter Bracketology (@OtterBrackets) March 9, 2024

Kamilla Cardoso is HER.

She just got drained a three to win the game for South Carolina.

WOW. pic.twitter.com/IXuvj8dOBv

— Grace (@grace_sportakes) March 9, 2024

A South Carolina WBB player just made her first career 3 pointer (and she’s a senior and center) to keep them undefeated yeah they’re gonna win the natty it’s written in the stars

— Juls 🤌🏼ミ☆ post march madness depression era (@RunInWithATree) March 10, 2024

Cardoso finished the game with 13 points, five rebounds, one assist, and three blocks on 6-10 shooting.

The result prompted a playful feud between two WNBA legends, as South Carolina alum A'ja Wilson revealed that Tennessee alum Candace Parker called her to celebrate before the final buzzer sounded.

A’ja Wilson got the last laugh against Candace Parker after South Carolina called game against Tennessee 😂 🔥

(via @_ajawilson22) pic.twitter.com/u6g2S7N72G

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 10, 2024

After entering the game at 30-0, the Gamecocks stayed unbeaten and will face off against the winner of the remaining semifinal matchup between Ole Miss and No. 8 LSU in the SEC tournament final.

South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley headlines the late-season list of Werner Ladder Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year Award contenders.

Staley, who has won the award three times in the past four seasons, is one of 15 coaches on the list that was unveiled on Wednesday.

2024 Werner Ladder Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year Award Watch List

• Dawn Staley, South Carolina
• Kim Mulkey, LSU
• Tara VanDerveer, Stanford
• Kevin McGuff, Ohio State
• Lisa Bluder, Iowa
• Kenny Brooks, Virginia Tech
• Cori Close, UCLA
• Lisa Fortier, Gonzaga
• Lindsay Gottlieb, USC
• Felisha Legette-Jack, Syracuse
• Jeff Mittie, Kansas State
• Wes Moore, North Carolina State
• JR Payne, Colorado
• Scott Rueck, Oregon State
• Vic Schaefer, Texas

After coming into the year ranked No. 6 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25, the Gamecocks moved into the top spot on Nov. 13 and haven't looked back. They are the only remaining undefeated team in Division I with a 25-0 record.

Staley can join Geno Auriemma and Pat Summitt as the only women's coaches with four Werner Ladder Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year Awards if she wins this year. She would also be the first men's or women's coach to win it in three consecutive seasons.

Each of the coaches whose team is ranked in the top 13 of the current AP poll are among the contenders challenging Staley for the award.

Kevin McGuff has Ohio State up to No. 2 in the AP Top 25 with a 22-3 record. The Buckeyes are riding a 12-game winning streak since their Dec. 18 loss to UCLA. They have a chance to set a new school record for victories in a season. The current record of 31 was set in 2009-10.

Stanford's Tara VanDerveer is the only person other than Staley who has won the Werner Ladder Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year Award in the past four seasons. She took home the honor for leading the Cardinal to a 31-2 record and the national title during the 2020-21 season.

VanDerveer has the Cardinal in the title mix again with a 23-3 record. The Hall of Famer would capture her fourth Werner Ladder Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year Award if she wins this season. Her first one was for the 1989-90 season when Stanford won its first national championship.

Lisa Fortier has turned the Gonzaga women's program into a national powerhouse. The Bulldogs have climbed up to No. 16 in the AP Top 25 after being unranked for the first four polls released this season.

Gonzaga's 26-2 record is only five wins away from tying the program's single-season mark for victories in a season (31 in 2010-11).

The winner of the 2023-24 Werner Ladder Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year Award will be announced in April leading up to the Final Four.

The rich got richer in the world of women's college basketball on Wednesday.

Highly regarded recruit Joyce Edwards committed to the South Carolina Gamecocks and head coach Dawn Staley. She chose South Carolina over LSU and Clemson:

Joyce Edwards is a GAMECOCK!

The No. 2 recruit in the class of 2024 is headed to @GamecockWBB @wachfox pic.twitter.com/JZvJlXaJ72

— Matt Dowell (@MattDowellTV) November 15, 2023

According to ESPN's HoopGurlz recruiting rankings, Edwards is a 5-star prospect and the No. 2 prospect in the country and behind only Sarah Strong.

Edwards is the highlight in an already loaded recruiting class.

Madisen McDaniel and Adhel Tac are also both 5-star players and ranked No. 12 and 26, respectively, in ESPN's rankings. The trio can be the core of the next great South Carolina team and provide star power at guard, on the wing and in the post.

If Edwards lives up to expectations, she will be a go-to player on those teams.

Alex Jones of 247Sports noted she was the South Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year last season behind averages of 28.5 points, 13.6 rebounds, 3.5 steals, 2.9 assists and 2.6 blocks per game. She won a state championship with Camden high school and then took home a gold medal as part of the USA Women's U19 National Team at the 2023 FIBA U19 Women's World Cup.

Recruiting like this will help Staley's program stay atop the college basketball world.

The Gamecocks won the national championship in 2022 and reached the Final Four last season. They are No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 this season and figure to be national title contenders when March arrives.

It will be up to Edwards and the other top recruits to maintain that standard in future seasons.

The South Carolina and Notre Dame women's basketball teams will head abroad to open the 2023-24 season.

The programs announced Wednesday they will face off in Paris on Nov. 6, the first NCAA regular-season basketball game ever in the City of Light.

Remarkable? Oui 👩‍🎨https://t.co/FLT0ZXfdRi pic.twitter.com/ToE7zfh1cR

— South Carolina Women's Basketball (@GamecockWBB) April 12, 2023

We're making history abroad! 🇫🇷

We’ll be taking on the Gamecocks in Paris, France to open the 2023-24 season. The matchup will be the first ever collegiate basketball game -- men’s or women’s -- played in the French capital.

🔗: https://t.co/Jzy0YXWnlc#GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/cz3tMl2wJl

— Notre Dame Women's Basketball (@ndwbb) April 12, 2023

"We did not hesitate to accept the invitation" Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley said. "Playing Notre Dame in Paris is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for our student-athletes, and I'm thankful for the support of our administration and our donors.

Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey emphasized the significance of the game.

"It's always been my mission to break barriers and provide opportunities for my players to have life-changing experiences," she said. "Women's basketball is on the rise right now, and having this exposure continues to grow the game on an international platform."

South Carolina and Notre Dame both figure to be top-10 teams when they tip off.

The Gamecocks had five players—Aliyah Boston, Laeticia Amihere, Zia Cooke, Brea Beal and Victaria Saxton—selected in the 2023 WNBA draft, but Kamilla Cardoso and Raven Johnson will be back and should thrive in starting roles.

The Fighting Irish will return nearly all of their squad, including their top three scorers in Sonia Citron, Olivia Miles and Maddy Westbeld. The status of Miles, who suffered a season-ending knee injury Feb. 26, figures to be a major storyline.

Women's basketball is riding a wave of momentum that could alter the trajectory of the sport.

LSU's national championship victory over Iowa drew 9.9 million viewers, making it the most-watched women's game on record. Viewership for the NCAA tournament rose 55 percent (averaging 983,000 viewers).

The timing couldn't be any better with the NCAA entering the final year of its television deal with ESPN to broadcast nearly all of the organization's championships.

"Basically, this thing is going out this year and it's going out on the heels of what will have been the most successful tournament," NCAA President Charlie Baker told reporters April 1. "... Let's see what the market thinks it's worth. I think the market is going to think it's worth a lot."

The Indiana Fever can breathe a sigh of relief.

South Carolina star Aliyah Boston announced she's entering the 2023 WNBA draft.

God makes no mistakes❤️ this program has been so good to my family and I. Wouldn’t trade these past 4 years for anything. With love gamecock nation❤️ #forevertothee pic.twitter.com/tM2iY0lMet

— Aliyah A. Boston (@aa_boston) April 1, 2023

The 6'5" forward is universally regarded as the best player in the class and a potentially transcendent star at the next level. She averaged 13.0 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game as a senior.

Boston had nothing left to prove in college.

She helped South Carolina win a national title in 2022, and the Gamecocks might have lifted another championship in 2020 had the COVID-19 pandemic not forced the cancellation of the NCAA tournament. In terms of individual accolades, she earned every single individual honor reserved for the top players and was a three-time unanimous first-team All-American.

The Fever have been adrift ever since Tamika Catchings retired after the 2016 season. They've finished with a losing record for six years and failed to build any sort of foundation despite the litany of lottery picks at their disposal.

Granted, Indiana never had the luxury of the No. 1 pick over that span. When the franchise won the 2023 draft lottery, the fanbase immediately understood how it could drastically reshape the Fever's trajectory.

Boston's declaration wasn't a foregone conclusion, though. She had an additional year of eligibility, and she remained coy about her future during the NCAA tournament.

BREAKING: Aliyah Boston will have Gamecock garnet braids for the NCAA Tournament.

Says there’s a specific reason (beyond it being the team color) that she got them, but she won’t reveal it until the tournament is over 👀

— Emily Adams (@eaadams6) March 16, 2023

Fans to Aliyah Boston after ESPN interview: "Aliyah, one more year!"

Aliyah Boston: Big smile.

— GoGamecocks (@gogamecocks) March 19, 2023

“Is this your last game in the state of South Carolina?”

Aliyah Boston: @TheNextHoops #NCAAW #SECWBB #MarchMadness @GamecockWBB (videography is obvi not my passion) pic.twitter.com/X6hl5eJtKY

— Gabriella Lewis (she/her) (@_gabriellalewis) March 28, 2023

Boston coming back to South Carolina would've been nothing short of a disaster for the Fever because she's head and shoulders better than her peers in the 2023 draft class.

Luckily for Indiana, it can pencil the 21-year-old into its long-term plans. Between dynamic guard Kelsey Mitchell and young forward NaLyssa Smith, the organization can lay the groundwork required to build a contender.

Following a 77-73 loss to Iowa in the Final Four, South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley took exception to how her squad has been characterized this season.

"We're not bar fighters. We're not thugs. We're not monkeys. We're not street fighters," she told reporters after the game. "I do think that that's sometimes brought into the game, and it hurts."

Staley also called out a remark from a "national writer" she heard secondhand:

Some of the people in the media, when you're gathering in public, you're saying things about our team, and you're being heard, and it's being brought back to me. And these are the people that write nationally for our sport. So you can not like our team and you can not like me. But when you say things that you probably should be saying in your home on the phone or texting out in public and you're being heard, and you are a national writer for our sport – it just confirms what we already know. So watch what you say when you're in public and you're talking about my team in particular.

A stifling defense was a hallmark for the Gamecocks this season. Their 51.1 points allowed per game were the third-fewest in Division I, and they ranked first in Her Hoop Stats' defensive rating (66.9). South Carolina also out-rebounded opponents 49.5-29.1 on average.

It's a style opposing teams have come to expect from Staley and her teams.

"You may not like how we play the game, you may not like it, that's the way we play," she said. "That's the way I coach."

There's no question South Carolina's defense comes with a level of physicality that can overwhelm opponents. But descriptions of the Gamecocks and their approach have gone over the top this season.

UConn head coach Geno Auriemma criticizing the officiating in the Huskies' 81-77 loss to South Carolina in February, focusing on the lack of fouls drawn by Lou Lopez Sénéchal. He said it was "not basketball anymore."

While Auriemma wasn't focusing specifically on the Gamecocks, the remark didn't sit well with Staley.

Her comment about her players not being "bar fighters" was, however, a direct reference to something said by Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder prior to the Final Four. Bluder praised the Gamecocks' rebounding and said jostling for position under the boards was like "going to a bar fight."

"You're going to a bar fight when you're trying to rebound against them"@IowaWBB HC @LisaBluder asked today about going against @GamecockWBB's size - says it'll be a tall task...literally.

"We can't really handle it one-on-one"@wachfox pic.twitter.com/S0VJXdHeNI

— Matt Vereen (@MattVereen) March 28, 2023

While Bluder likely meant nothing untoward, some thought the observation flew a little too closely to the tropes that have historically been applied to Black athletes and other athletes of color.

"I think when we look at it, it's like we're always the aggressor, when I don't feel like that's the case," Gamecocks star Aliyah Boston said after Friday's game.