GREENVILLE, S.C. — Dawn Staley greeted her players at midcourt on Monday with a pregame ritual, briefly dancing a two-step called the Baltimore Shuffle. After the South Carolina women’s basketball team dispatched Maryland to reach the Final Four of the N.C.A.A. tournament, the Gamecocks cut down the net at one basket. Staley, their coach since 2008, slipped it like jewelry over her Louis Vuitton sweatsuit. A “netlace,” she has called it through the years.
This weekend in Dallas, South Carolina (36-0) is favored to cut down another net as it seeks a second consecutive national championship and a third overall for Staley and her team. The Gamecocks will play Iowa on Friday night in the national semifinals. Already, Staley has won more Division I basketball titles than any Black coach, man or woman.
She is a four-time Olympic gold medalist (three as a player, one as a coach) and is enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Her success, resolve and sense of obligation have led her to voice her opinions on racial and gender equity as perhaps the most visible face and resonant moral voice in the sport.
“She’s the standard,” said Niele Ivey of Notre Dame, who was one of four Black coaches to reach the round of 16 in this women’s tournament, the most in a decade….
