Dawn Staley Addresses South Carolina’s NCAA Tournament Seeding

South Carolina’s Dawn Staley Speaks Out on Not Being the Top Overall Seed in NCAA Women’s Tournament

As the NCAA women’s tournament seedings were announced on Sunday, South Carolina earned a No. 1 seed. However, for the first time since 2021, South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley and her team were not selected as the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament. Staley expressed her disappointment and shared her thoughts on the situation.

“Obviously, it’s disappointing. It really is,” Staley commented, according to a post by Matt Dowell on X. She went on to question the reasoning behind the selection process, adding, “I’d like to get some feedback on how they came to that conclusion. Because we put together, manufactured a schedule that, if done right, it should produce the overall No. 1 seed.”

Staley did not hold back, stating that adjustments may be made to future schedules if this is indeed the standard the NCAA follows: “But I will say this. We’re gonna make adjustments to our schedule in the future if the standard is the standard. If that’s the standard, then we can play any schedule and get a No. 1 seed.”

This season, the Gamecocks faced 15 ranked teams, finishing with a 30-3 record. The three losses came at the hands of top-10 teams, including UCLA, the tournament’s overall No. 1 seed.

The Gamecocks will meet Tennessee Tech on Friday at 4:00 PM ET. Following that, they will face the winner of Indiana and Utah in the second round.

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