"The Gauntlet gave me nightmares": LaKeisha Sutton & Brionna Dickerson once recalled Dawn Staley using Tara VanDerveer's 'intense' practice drill

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley has become the face of success in college basketball with her dominant Gamecocks teams over the years. Recently, she fortuitously snagged the No. 1 seed in the Southeastern Conference with a chance to win her ninth conference championship during her tenure in Columbia.

Things were not always so glorious at USC when she first joined a program that had no basketball culture and had to build from scratch, starting with losing seasons in 2008 and 2009.

One of the methods that Staley used to get her team up to speed was a physical exercise aptly named "The Gauntlet." During a 2024 interview with "The State," former Gamecocks stars LaKeisha Sutton and Brionna Dickerson revealed how the charismatic Dawn Staley used the method that she had learned from legendary coach Tara VanDerveer on the players when she first arrived at South Carolina.

"'The Gauntlet' gave me nightmares!" Sutton said.

"It would make or break you," Dickerson said. "We had some teammates who didn’t start the first day of workouts with us because they hadn’t made it through 'The Gauntlet' yet. I remember it was like you had to run the mile in a certain amount (of time), the 800 in a certain amount (of time), the 400 and the 200. And if you didn’t, you had to keep doing it until you were able to meet all of them."

The Gamecocks had two losing seasons but continued to improve and reached their first Final Four and achieved a No. 1 ranking in the 2014-2015 NCAA Tournament.

For her part, Dawn Staley revealed why she used "The Gauntlet" to get her players in shape:

"I did it at Temple. I utilized the success our Olympic team had. This was the formula Tara VanDerveer used when it came to getting us in tip-top shape."

Geno Auriemma credits Dawn Staley for USC culture

In her 16-year tenure as coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks, Dawn Staley has led them to five regular season Southeastern Conference championships, seven SEC championships and three national championships, including last year's unbeaten triumph.

After UConn beat South Carolina 87-58 last month, legendary Huskies coach Geno Auriemma credited Staley for building the Gamecocks into a powerhouse and praised the basketball culture at South Carolina.

“Coming down here is really, really, really hard. It didn’t used to be a long time ago, and I think they made it really special and really hard to play here," Auriemma said. "The crowd supports the program. They’re fantastic. I remember the very first time we come down here, they had no idea how to behave. They’ve never seen anything like this, act like this.

"I just wanted to say congrats to school and the community. (It’s) great this happened in more places, but it’s a testament to all the people down here. Dawn and her staff and what they built. It’s really cool. I really, I really enjoy it. So, congratulations to everybody down here."

As a coach, Dawn Staley has won four Naismith Coach of the Year Awards, a far cry from her first two seasons in Columbia, where she had to build the team from scratch. She is hot on the heels of her fourth national championship.