Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley makes history again with national coach of the year win

The U.S. Basketball Writers Association has picked South Carolina women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley as National Coach of the Year.

Staley has now collected the award for the fourth time, making her the only coach in the award’s history to do it in three consecutive seasons.

Staley has guided her team to its third consecutive NCAA Tournament overall No. 1 seed, with the Gamecocks going undefeated into the tournament for the second straight season, according to WLTX.

Staley had just one player who had ever started a game as a Gamecock going into the season after losing seven players to graduation, including all five starters from the 2023 NCAA Final Four team, according to ABC Columbia. Despite this, the squad was ranked No. 6/4 in the national preseason polls due to the caliber of talent that was gained via the signing class and the transfer portal.

The Gamecocks lead the nation with their 17 victories over NET top-50 teams and have the second-most victories against ranked opponents in the nation.

This season, the 53-year-old coach was nominated for SEC Coach of the Year by her colleagues for the seventh time in history, only surpassed by the legendary Pat Summitt.

The Atlanta Tipoff Club announced on March 25 that the honoree is one of the four finalists for the 2024 Werner Ladder Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year.

Thanks to her outstanding coaching, the trailblazer has received acclaim from several sources, including The Athletic, ESPN, The Sporting News, and USBWA, where she was crowned National Coach of the Year, per Black Enterprise.