TAMPA, Fla. — South Carolina coach Dawn Staley questioned the narrative that has surrounded UConn guard Paige Bueckers and her quest to win a national championship, saying Saturday that it has overshadowed any discussion about what her players have done.
The Gamecocks will attempt to repeat as national champions Sunday in the national title game against the Huskies, who beat them handily earlier in the season. Bueckers is attempting to win her first national title with the Huskies in her final season with the program.
Staley was asked whether she felt Bueckers needed to win a title to cement her legacy as an all-time great in the game. She was asked a similar question last year about Caitlin Clark, whom South Carolina played in the national title game. South Carolina beat Iowa 87-75 to finish 38-0 as national champions.
“Sometimes we create these narratives about great players — Caitlin was one of them; Paige is one of them right now — and we tend to forget the narrative about what our kids have been able to do, going for their third in four years,” Staley said Saturday. “There’s a sentimental narrative about Paige. A great freakin’ player. Anybody would start their franchise with Paige because she’s a winner. … But 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. Officials see it. It’s all over TikTok. It’s all over ‘SportsCenter.’ It’s all over all of that.”
Staley said she wants the discussion to be about both Bueckers and her players headed into Sunday. UConn has not won a national championship since 2016 and lost to South Carolina in the title game in 2022, when Bueckers scored 14 points as a sophomore.
“She’s a great player, but just because you’re a great player doesn’t mean you need to win the national championship to legitimize it,” Staley said. “Paige is legit. Her career is legendary. She will leave a legacy at UConn whether she wins one or not.
“I just want to put it out there. I can’t not address it because it’s happening. It happened to us last year. Everything was about Caitlin Clark and her legacy and her ability to win a national championship. Yet we were coming into this thing undefeated, doing something that’s unprecedented at the time. We find ourselves back here in a similar situation.”
Though South Carolina is not undefeated this time around, the Gamecocks withstood three regular-season losses to find a way back. That includes an 87-58 loss to UConn in February that snapped a 71-game home winning streak.
Players reflected on that loss Saturday, but it also served as motivation to learn and correct mistakes so they could fulfill their quest to repeat. South Carolina has not lost since then, and though it needed comeback wins in three NCAA tournament games — including the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight — the Gamecocks showcased their full potential in a 74-57 win over Texas in the semifinals Friday.
“[UConn] was such an embarrassing loss for us, and we knew that we’re going to come back stronger and even better,” guard Te-Hina Paopao said. “We’re a whole different team now, and so we’ve just got to showcase that tomorrow for 40 minutes.”
Indeed, they now have a chance to repeat as champions for the first time in school history. What’s more, Sania Feagin, Raven Johnson and Bree Hall all have an opportunity to win their third national title in four years for the Gamecocks.
“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. And that’s not talked about enough. There’s room for it in our game for all of us to be covered. Let’s not choose a history, one’s history over another program’s history. Let’s not choose one player over another player’s history because we’re all creating history for our game.”