Dawn Staley and South Carolina completed their perfect season and ended Caitlin Clark’s historic college career with an 87-75 win over Iowa in the NCAA championship game on Sunday.
“It doesn’t always end the way you want it to end, just like last year. But my newcomers are close to my heart because they wanted this. It’s great… It’s great. It is awesome. It’s unbelievable,” Staley said. “When young people buy in and have a faith, and have a trust, and their parents have that same trust, this is what can happen. They made history. They etched their names in the history books.”
With Staley leading a ferocious offense – and a suffocating defense – from the sidelines, the Gamecocks (38-0) became the 10th Division I team to endure a losing season. And they achieved this feat after losing all five starters from last season’s team that lost to Clark’s squad in the 2023 national semifinals.
South Carolina has won three titles in the past eight years, including two of the past three, laying claim to being the newest dynasty in women’s basketball. Staley became the fifth coach to win three national championships, joining Geno Auriemma, Pat Summitt, Kim Mulkey and Tara VanDerveer.
The Gamecocks, who have won 109 of their last 112 games, became the first team since UConn in 2016 to go undefeated. South Carolina had a few scares throughout the season, but always found a way to win.
With most of the team returning next year, save for star center Kamilla Cardoso, Staley’s team is in a good position to keep this streak going. Tessa Johnson led South Carolina with 19 points. The 6-foot-4 Cardoso was excellent all game, finishing with 15 points and 17 rebounds.
“Kamilla Cardoso wasn’t going to let us lose a game in the NCAA Tournament,” Staley said. “She played through injury, she played as one of the top picks in the WNBA draft, and her teammates did something that no teammate has done for anyone going into the WNBA in our program. They send her away as national champion. So for us this is history.”
Clark did everything he could to lead the Hawkeyes to their first championship. She scored 30 points, including a championship-record 18 in the first quarter. She will go down as one of the greatest players in NCAA history. She rewrote the record book at Iowa (34-5) and finished as the leading scorer in NCAA Division I history with 3,951 career points.
“I think the biggest thing is that it’s really hard to win these things. I think I know better than most people by now that it really hurts to be so close twice,” Clark said.
She hopes her legacy will be defined less by falling short in two NCAA championship games, but more by the millions of new fans she helped bring to the game and the countless young girls and boys she inspired. As the final buzzer sounded, a stoic Clark walked off the field, through the confetti, into the tunnel on his way to the locker room. Her next appearance will be at the upcoming WNBA draft, where she will almost certainly be the No. 1 overall pick for the Indiana Fever.
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“Personally, I would like to thank Caitlin Clark for taking our sport to the next level. She has carried a heavy burden for our sport,” Staley said. “She’s going to take that league (WNBA) to the next level as well. Caitlin Clark, if you’re there, you’re one of the GOATS of our game. We appreciate you.”