“It is nothing against Caitlin Clark”: When Dawn Staley compared ex-Iowa star with 4x NCAA champion Breanna Stewart

Dawn Staley appeared on the Dan Patrick Show in March 2024 to talk about a range of topics. One such topic was the greatest college player of all time debate, with Caitlin Clark's name inevitably coming up.

Clark lit up the NCAA playing for Iowa and has been largely credited by many as one of the influential players who has grown the audience of women's basketball. While her play was monumental as a Hawkeye, Dan Patrick didn't overlook current WNBA superstar Breanna Stewart.

When speaking about whether he thinks Caitlin Clark is the greatest college player in history, Patrick brought up perennial winner at UConn Breanna Stewart, who played four years in Connecticut and won four titles.

"If I'm going to take the person who wins, Breanna Stewart won four titles and was the most outstanding player in all four years. You can't do any better than that," he said. Timestamp: 6:00

Dawn Staley concurred but didn't take anything away from Clark.

"You can't," she said. "It's nothing against Caitlin Clark and all the people that love her... I'm a basketball enthusiast. I love her... I love what she's doing for the game, I love when she hits logo threes, I love when she hits game-winning shots. I mean, all that is tremendous."

"I spend a lot of time watching Big Ten basketball because of her, and that's got to be a lot of responsibility for her and a lot of pressure for her and she's handled it incredibly well." Timestamp: 6:10

You can watch the full interview below.

Dawn Staley and the No. 3 South Carolina Gamecocks take on No. 8 Duke

Dawn Staley and South Carolina are set to defend their impressive 61-game home winning streak tonight (Dec. 5) as they face Duke in the SEC/ACC Challenge.

This will mark South Carolina’s fourth game against a ranked opponent this season, with the Gamecocks already securing victories over No. 9 N.C. State and No. 15 Iowa State. They dropped their game against No. 5 UCLA, marking their first loss since the 2023 Final Four.

Duke is coming off two ranked wins against Top 10 teams, snagging wins over Kansas State and Oklahoma.

Speaking to the media this week, Dawn Staley outlined their biggest challenge against the Blue Devils.

“They can put some points on the scoreboard, so we got to defend. And then, for us, we got to score. I think, for us, we have to be disciplined. I think they like to get up and down the floor. They shoot a lot of threes. We have to be disciplined and taking good shots because, when we take good shots, it affords us to rebound the basketball, and it affords us to get back in transition D to make sure that we’re guarding their shooters and their rim runners.”

Following tonight's game, the Gamecocks will challenge yet another top-10 team, No. 9 TCU, on Sunday, Dec.8.