The two preeminent coaches in women’s university basketball will meet in the game of the National Women’s Basketball Championship of Division I of the NCAA on Sunday.
Geno Auriemma has trained UCONN to 11 national titles, while South Carolina Chief coach Dawn Staley has taken three championships to Gamecocks, including the title of 2024. UConn and South Carolina will fight for the 2025 championship in Tampa, Florida, later on Sunday.
Staley is one of the high profile figures of university basketball, he has often shared his thoughts about any problem with which sport can be counting at a given time. Amid the search for Gamecocks of consecutive national titles, Staley talked about the stories surrounding the Uconn Paige Bueckers star in relation to the framework of female university basketball.
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Chief coach Dawn Staley of the South Carolina Gamecocks during the Texas Lonchorns game in the NCAA semifinal game at Amalie Arena on April 4, 2025, in Tampa, Florida. (Photos of Ben Solomon/NCAA through Getty Images)
Staley pointed out the narratives surrounding former Iowa Hawkeyes Caitlin Clark star when she talked about the conversations that are currently thrown into Bueckers.
Clark’s individual achievements during his rise to stardom in recent years dominated media coverage. Clark was largely, and in some cases only, accredited with the strong increase in the popularity of female basketball.
The lack of popularity of the UConn Star Paige Bueckers in the tournament has a racial component, his NBA player suggests
When talking about Bueckers and the search for his first race championship, Staley suggested that there was a tendency “to forget the narrative about what (South Carolina players) has been able to do, going for his third (National Championship) in four years.”
Chief coach Dawn Staley of Gamecks’s gestures during Georgia Lady Bulldogs game in Colonial Life Arena on February 18, 2024 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Jacob Kupferman/Getty images)
“Sometimes we create these stories about great players: Caitlin was one of them; Paige is one of them at this time, and we tend to forget the narration about what our children have been able to do, going for third in four years,” Staley said during a press conference on Saturday.
“There is a sentimental narrative about Paige. A great player. Anyone would begin her franchise with Paige due to her efficient way of playing, because she is a winner, because she brain only knows the game, she only has one aura on her. And she will be the number one selection in the WNBA Draft. And she will be an Olympic.
“And she is a great player, but just because you are a great player does not mean that she needs to win the National Championship to legitimize him. Paige is legitimate. He was legitimate from the moment she stepped on this stage or before, in Minnesota. His career is legendary. He will leave a legacy in Uconn if he wins one or not.”
Staley then pointed out the experience of South Carolina during last year’s race to the national title.
“I just want to put it there. I can’t address it because it is happening. It happened to us last year. Everything was about Caitlin Clark and its legacy and its ability to win a national championship. However, we were reaching this undefeated thing, doing something unprecedented at that time, because it is difficult. It is difficult. We are here in a similar situation.”
The UConn Guard, Paige Bueckers, passes the ball during the Sweet 16 game against Oklahoma, on Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Spokane, Washington. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
Staley then expressed his hopes of a more balanced approach.
“I want feelings to be about our players and what our players have been able to do, equally, because there is room to do both,” he said. “We can raise Paige because she deserves that and raise our players because they deserve that. And that is not spoken enough. There is space for it in our game. ROOM FOR JOSÉ. ROOM FOR OUR GAME, so that we are all covered. We do not choose a story, the story of one about the story of another program. We do not choose a player about the story of another player because we are all creating history for our game.”
On Saturday, ESPN included quotes from the Staley media session in an article that covers the Bueckers narrative. The Hoops X of the Net, previously known as Twitter, also shared a publication with a link to the story.
“Dawn Staley says that the narrative around Paige Bueckers and her search to win a title has eclipsed the exploits of South Carolina”, the publication of X Read. Staley disagree with how his comments were presented and responded to the publication. “Lies! Arrange the headline, please!” South Carolina wrote in X.
South Carolina was undefeated last season and defeated Clark and the Hawkeyes in the championship game. Iowa also fell short in the game of the national title of 2023, since LSU dominated the Hawkeyes in the game for the title of that year.
Caitlin Clark of Iowa during the LSU game in American Airlines Arena Dallas. (Greg Nelson /Sports Illustrated through Getty Images)
Clark never won a championship during his university career. However, it is widely seen as one of the best women’s university basketball players, which seems to talk to Staley’s point about Bueckers that do not need to “win the National Championship to legitimize” the greatness of a player.
South Carolina and UConn Avivan at 3 PM et in Amalie Arena.
