"We made it to the very end": Dawn Staley flexes her muscles along with South Carolina coaching staff before championship clash

South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley showed gratitude to her coaching staff as the Gamecocks prepared for one last run in their quest for a back-to-back national championship. Staley's team will face Geno Auriemma's UConn Huskies in Sunday's NCAA Tournament title game.

The Gamecocks coach retweeted a tweet by South Carolina's director of performance, Molly Binetti, who posted a photo of Staley and her staff flexing their muscles inside a gym on Sunday.

"Got it in for the last one of the season! Thank you Molly. Game day gang we made it to the very end. Let’s goooo do this!!" Staley wrote.

Staley led South Carolina past SEC rival Texas in the Final Four on Friday. The Gamecocks overcame a slow start to notch a commanding 74-57 win to reach their third championship game in four years.

Veteran guard Te-Hina Pao Pao scored a team-high 14 points and was 3 of 4. Freshman Joyce Edward overcame a scoring slump to produce 13 points, 11 rebounds and six assists, becoming the first player in the past 25 years with at least 10 points, 10 rebounds and five assists off the bench in a Final Four.

Dawn Staley speaks about UConn's Paige Bueckers' impact in women's basketball

Ahead of the much-anticipated showdown between powerhouses in the national championship game, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley spoke about UConn star Paige Bueckers in a news conference on Saturday.

Talking about Bueckers' pursuit of her first and final national championship title, Staley pointed out that her team, South Carolina, is often overlooked despite reaching the final for the third time in four years.

“There’s a sentimental narrative about Paige. A great freakin’ player. Anybody would start their franchise with Paige because of her efficient way of playing, because she’s a winner, because she cerebrally just knows the game, just has an aura about her. And she’ll be the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft. And she’ll be an Olympian. She’ll be all those things.

"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.”

While acknowledging that Bueckers deserves the recognition she is getting, Staley pointed out that her players should also be recognized because they deserve that. She concluded that one player should not be chosen over others because they are all creating history for women's basketball.