Dawn Staley details benefits of WNBA Legend Lisa Leslie pulling up to support South Carolina during March Madness

The No. 1 seeded South Carolina Gamecocks (31-3) put on a strong performance in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, defeating No. 16 seed Tennessee Tech 108-48 at Colonial Life Arena on Friday night.

Among those in attendance to witness South Carolina’s commanding win was the WNBA legend Lisa Leslie. It was the first time Leslie had watched Dawn Staley coach in March Madness, despite the two sharing a long history as teammates across four Olympic Games.

During the postgame press conference, Staley shared her thoughts on Leslie’s visit and how it benefits the team.

"Lisa is great. Lisa is a person that’s passionate about basketball," she said (6:38). "We’ve spent a lot of hotel nights as roommates. We absolutely love basketball. I’m going to pick her brain about some of the things that we need to do to continue to help our players – like Adhel and Maryam and Joyce develope.

“She is, a four-time Olympian. I don’t know how many MVPs, championships, gold medals. Any time you can have a resource like that, it’s always great to have, especially when we get so many bigs that come through our program.”

When asked if she spoke with Leslie during the game, Staley confirmed that she had, and talked about her support during the tournament.

“Yeah, I talked to her. She’s staying at my house, so I saw her before the game. We’ll talk a lot tonight when I get back home, and I don’t think we can get her. I might want to bring her to our film session at the hotel tonight, so I might be able to bring her there and just have her around our players to ask questions about how they can maximize this, you know, space in the NCAA Tournament and beyond.”

What’s next for Dawn Staley's South Carolina

The Gamecocks now turn their focus to the second round of the tournament, set to take place on Sunday. They will compete for a spot in the Sweet 16, which will be held in Birmingham, Alabama, next week.

South Carolina will face No. 9 seed Indiana, who secured a 76-68 victory over No. 8 Utah in their opening-round matchup on Friday. This will mark a rematch of last year’s Sweet 16, where the Gamecocks beat Indiana in a closely contested 79-75 game.

The game between South Carolina and Indiana will be broadcast on ESPN. Fans can also stream the game via FUBO.