For the fourth time in her career, USC women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley has been named the Naismith Coach of the Year presented by the Atlanta Tip-Off Club. She’s the first coach to win the award in three consecutive seasons.
“Being named Werner Ladder Naismith Coach of the Year is always an honor and always the work of every coach, every person on our staff,” Staley said in a release. “When we first brought this team together last summer, I don’t think any of our staff would have predicted the position this particular group of young women have put us in this week. But, we all stuck with it; we adapted to what our players were capable of at each step in their development. And the result has been one of the most fun seasons I’ve had in my coaching career, and I credit our players for that, for showing us that there’s more than one path toward a goal.”
Here’s more from the USC release:
Staley has led her team to its third-straight NCAA Tournament overall No. 1 seed with the Gamecocks entering the NCAA Tournament undefeated for the second-consecutive season and advancing to the NCAA Final Four for the fourth-straight season. After losing seven players to graduation, including all five starters from the 2023 NCAA Final Four team, Staley entered the season with just one player who had ever started a game as a Gamecock. Still the talent level that returned and was added via the transfer portal and the signing class had the team slotted at No. 6/4 in the preseason national polls. South Carolina dominated its historic season-opening top-10 matchup against Notre Dame in Paris and shot to the top of both polls, where it remained for the entire season. The Gamecocks’ nine wins over ranked opponents are tied for the most in the country.
South Carolina swept the SEC Regular-Season and Tournament titles for the sixth time in the last 10 seasons, posting a perfect 16-0 SEC regular-season record for the third time in program history. Already named National Coach of the Year by The Athletic, ESPN, The Sporting News and USBWA, Staley drew SEC Coach of the Year honors from her colleagues for the seventh time this season, leaving her just one behind legendary Pat Summitt for the most selections in league history.
No. 1/1 South Carolina is in the NCAA Final Four for the fourth-straight season and sixth in the last nine tournaments and will face No. 11/11 NC State on Fri., Apr. 5, at 7 p.m. at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on ESPN.
Also Wednesday, USC center Kamilla Cardoso was named the WBCA Defensive Player of the Year. She’s the first Gamecock to win the award and joins Alliyah Boston as the program’s only national defensive players of the year.
Here’s more from the USC release:
“Defense is about determination, intensity, effort and teamwork. Kamila Cardoso is an outstanding student-athlete who embodies these characteristics at the highest level,” said WBCA Executive Director Danielle M. Donehew. “Kamila has consistently presented a challenge to opposing coaches and players. We celebrate her contribution to her team and to the game of women’s basketball.”
Cardoso was named SEC Defensive Player of the Year and has picked up several All-America selections as the season wraps up. The Gamecocks’ top scorer (14.1 ppg) and rebounder (9.4 rpg), she impacts the game on both ends of the floor. The senior is 14th in the nation with 2.48 blocks per game. She is 10th in the nation in player defensive rating (72.6) and anchors the top defensive team in the country as the Gamecocks have allowed opponents to shoot just 32.1 percent from the field and yield just 56.0 points per game.
The Defensive Player of the Year award honors the best defensive women’s basketball player in all of NCAA Division I. All conference defensive players of the year in NCAA Division I are considered for the award. If a conference does not select a defensive player of the year, the conference office can nominate one player to be considered.