Staley, a better player or coach?
Hoops lifer has won Naismith awards for both
Dawn Staley is already in the Hall of Fame as a feisty, fiery point guard. She one day might make it there too, for her coaching career.
So, Staley was asked Saturday, if she was a better player or coach.
“That’s a good question,” said South Carolina’s thoughtful, 14-year coach.
Staley, who already won the NCAA Tournament with the Gamecocks in 2017, can add to her coaching legacy Sunday night when her top-seeded team faces UConn for the national championship. She was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.
She became the first to win the Naismith player of the year award while point guard at Virginia and as South Carolina’s coach two years ago. She added a second coaching award on Wednesday.
Staley said playing the point required similar skills as a coach. “I’ve always been able to see the big picture and I’ve carried that,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if its basketball or if it’s just life.”
That vision, along with her ability to talk, listen and come to consensus with teammates or players, has helped her succeed as both a player and a coach.
“I’m probably a better coach,” said Staley, 51, who’s spent eight years as Temple’s coach before coming to South Carolina 14 years ago.
Her longevity as a coach is one reason for her answer, she said. “Two, I think my impact is far,” Staley said. “I can make more of an impact as a coach than I did as a player.”
If Staley’s coaching success continues, she could join Lenny Wilkens and Tommy Heinsohn as Hall of Famers as players and coaches. Wilkens is a three-time Hall-of-Famer, also honored as an assistant for the 1992 Olympic “Dream Team.”
Philly for life
Don’t be surprised if Philly cheesesteaks come up during the coaches’ pregame hello Sunday night. That’s because both UConn’s Geno Auriemma and South Carolina’s Dawn Staley are Philadelphia raised.
Auriemma’s family moved to Norristown in Philly from Italy when he was seven. Staley was born in the city and starred at Murrell Dobbins Tech High.
“I think any time that you’re in this position to compete for a national championship, it’s a pretty big deal,” Staley said Saturday. “And if you have Philly ties, it’s a bigger deal.”
This is just the latest meeting between Staley and Auriemma. UConn holds a 7-2 edge in such matchups, but the Gamecocks have won two of the past three including a 73-57 win earlier this season against the secondranked Huskies in the Bahamas.
Staley served as an Olympic assistant to Auriemma on the 2016 goldmedal winning US team.
Auriemma believes people from Philly, perhaps due to its proximity to New York City, carry an inferiority complex that drives them to great heights.
“We have to prove to everybody that we’re smarter and tougher and better than everybody else,” he said. “I think all of us from that area carry that around.”
Alternate telecast
Two UConn greats in Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird hosted a different sort of telecast of the women’s Final Four on Friday night.
One their former coach Geno Auriemma doesn’t plan to watch.
“I’m sure,” he said, “they were funny as hell.”
The broadcast turned into an irreverent, sometimes’ crude, watching of South Carolina’s win over Louisville and the Huskies’ defeat of defending national champion Stanford.
Taurasi, the national, pro and Olympic champ, made an off-color comment involving the shortened form of South Carolina’s Gamecocks nickname.