"Don't discount what we did all season long": Dawn Staley gets real on Selection Sunday after South Carolina reaches the SEC Tournament final

The South Carolina Gamecocks, coached by Dawn Staley, are poised to protect their conference tournament throne after reaching the SEC finals once again. The defending national champions reached the pinnacle of their league after a 93-75 triumph over the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday.

With how they have fared in the 2024-2025 season, reaching the conference tournament championship game allows the Gamecocks to claim their eighth SEC title in the past decade, further solidifying how much of a powerhouse program Staley and Co. has carved out as of late.

During the postgame panel interview, Staley expressed her thoughts on one of the driving forces that has led to South Carolina staying dominant in the year: its campaign schedule. For the accomplished tactician, the challenges and adversities they were dealt with by the NCAA selection committee for Selection Sunday have made her squad tougher.

"It's not us, it's the NCAA selection committee," Staley said. "I mean, we played the best schedule in the country. We had the toughest schedule. Did we have a bad game at Connecticut? Sure, but don't discount what we did all season long. Don't do that. It ain't that time to do that. So, we go out and we play the toughest schedule manufactured so that we can get a number one seed.

"If not, the overall No. 1 seed. So, we put ourselves in that position by getting to the finals, and hopefully, whatever team ends up winning this particular game, we could solidify, I guess, our No. 1 seed... It's not a pitch, it's reality. It is."

Staley and the rest of the Gamecocks are slated to take on the second-seeded Texas Longhorns for the 2025 SEC Tournament championship on Sunday at the same venue, the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in South Carolina.

It was an all-out effort by the South Carolina Gamecocks on Saturday

For their SEC semifinal victory on Saturday over the fifth-seeded Oklahoma Sooners, the South Carolina Gamecocks, as a whole, unleashed a well-balanced effort to uncork the win as nine players scored for them. Even more impressive is the fact that the reigning national champions had more bench points as opposed to their starters, 56 to 37.

Freshman Joyce Edwards top-scored for the matchup with 21 points, three rebounds and five assists in 29 minutes off the bench, supplemented by wings MiLaysia Fulwiley and Tessa Johnson, who had 19 and 11 markers, respectively, also from the second stringers.