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Andrea Adelson
Tampa, Fla. – South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley challenged the story that surrounded Uconne watch Paige Bueckers And her efforts to win the National Championship and said on Saturday that she overshadowed any discussion about what her players did.
Gamecocks will try to repeat as a national champions on Sunday in a national title game against Huskies who defeated them earlier in the season. Bueckers is trying to win their first national title with Huskies in her last season with the program.
Staley was asked if he felt that Bueckers needed to win the title to strengthen his link as great in the game. A similar question was asked last year Caitlin clarkWhom South Carolina played in the national title game. South Carolina beat Iowa 87-75 to complete 38-0 as national champions.
“Sometimes we create these stories about great players – Caitlin was one of them; Paige is one of them right now – and we tend to forget what our children have done, go for the third in four years,” Staley said on Saturday. “The Paige is a sentimental narration. A great fool. It’s all over everything.”
Staley said she wanted the discussion to be about Bueckers and her players would head for Sunday. Uconn did not win the National Championship since 2016 and lost in South Carolina in the title game in 2022, when Bueckers scored 14 points as Sophomore.
“He’s a great player, but just because you’re a great player doesn’t mean you have to win the National Championship to legitimize it,” Staley said. “Paige is legitimate. Her career is legendary. He won’t let the reference to whether he wins one or not.
“I just want to put it there. I can’t deal with it because it happens. It happened to us last year. Everything was about Caitlin Clark and her heritage and her ability to win the National Championship. Yet we were undefeated and did something unprecedented at the time.
Although South Carolina is not undefeated this time, Gamecocks resisted three losses in a regular season to find their way back. This includes a loss of 87-58 for Uconn in February, which jumped by 71 gaming winning lanes.
Players thought about this loss on Saturday, but also served as a motivation to learn and correct mistakes to fulfill their efforts to repeat. South Carolina has not lost since then, and although it required a comeback to win in three NCAAA-5 tournament games and Eight-Gamecocks showed its full potential in the 74-57 victory Texas In the semifinal Friday.
“(Uconn) was such an embarrassing loss for us and we knew we would return stronger and even better,” the guard Hary refused said. “Now we are a completely different team, so we have to show it tomorrow for 40 minutes.”
In fact, they now have a chance to repeat as champion for the first time in the history of the school. What’s more, Ferdian, Raven Johnson and Bree Hall Everyone has the opportunity to win their third national title in four years for Gamecocks.
“I want sentiments to be about our players and what our players have done – anyway, because there is room for both,” said Staley. “We can raise Paige up because it deserves and raises our players because they deserve it. And there is not enough talk about it. In our game, we all have space for it, because we are all to be covered.
