"I don't know how he does it": Dawn Staley gives South Carolina staff member his flowers for being "irreplaceable" in Gamecock dynasty

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley led her No. 1-seeded Gamecocks to their fifth consecutive Final Four appearance, beating the Duke Blue Devils 54-50 on Sunday evening. The Gamecocks will clash with the No. 1-seeded Texas Longhorns in the Final Four on Friday evening for a shot at the national championship game.

During an interview with Rivals on Tuesday, Staley had special praise for Jacob Huden, South Carolina's director of women's basketball video services, for the work he does to ensure that the team is prepared for games.

"I don't know how he does it," Dawn Staley said. "He gives us anything that we need. Remotely, physically, I don't think he gets enough credit for organizing us. He's up all times of the night.

"He just really does all the little things. He sacrifices his time for us. He'll be over here getting videos of all the (other tournament) games while we're at practice."

"You can't replace him," assistant coach Lisa Boyer said about Jacobs. "He's irreplaceable. He does everything for us. He's really smart, he already knows what you want, he can get it really quickly and he makes it make sense."

Jacobs joined the Gamecocks in 2011 and has since established himself as a guru in preparing footage for Staley's assistants from training and rivals' games to prepare the team.

Dawn Staley hasn't solely utilized Jacobs' services for South Carolina. When she was the coach of the USA national team, she onboarded her secret weapon and won gold medals at the 2018 FIBA World Cup and 2019, 2021 FIBA AmeriCup and 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

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How Dawn Staley has utilized Hudson Jacobs to build a dynasty

Hudson Jacobs joined Dawn Staley's staff in 2011 as a video coordinator while she was streamlining South Carolina into an elite outfit after two losing seasons to start her Gamecocks tenure.

Jacob's first season in Columbia was also the first time South Carolina made the NCAA Tournament. Six years later, the Gamecocks won their first national title under Dawn Staley, and the dynasty was established.

In the interview with Rivals, Jacobs revealed how he was recruited by the charismatic South Carolina coach from his role as an assistant for the Charlotte 49ers, where he had been for four years.

"From what I understand," Jacobs said. "Coach (Staley) was talking to one of our assistants at an AAU Tournament.

"She asked, 'I have a video coordinator opening, do you know anybody that would be interested?' Then, I randomly got a call from her one day asking if I wanted to come down and interview for the job. And the rest is history."

Hudson Jacobs will be a busy man this week as he prepares for the Gamecocks' Final Four clash with the No. 1-seeded Texas Longhorns.

Should South Carolina win that game, Jacobs will have to prepare footage for Dawn Staley and her assistants for the national championship game, which will tip off 42 hours after the Gamecocks' Final Four clash against the Longhorns, showing the crucial role he will play in their quest to repeat as national champions.