Dawn Staley just added another trophy to her mantle.
That’s because the Associated Press has named the leader of the South Carolina women’s basketball team national women’s coach of the year following the conclusion of the 2019-2020 basketball season.
Staley received 20 of the 30 overall votes for the award. Northwestern’s Joe McKeown received five votes, Oregon’s Kelly Graves received four votes and North Carolina State’s Wes Moore received one vote.
This news comes after South Carolina went 32-1 and won both the SEC regular-season title and the 2020 SEC Tournament title. The Gamecocks finished the season ranked No. 1 in the AP poll the final 10 weeks of the season and finished on a 26-game winning streak.
“It’s a great feeling. It’s cliche as I represent the best team in the country and our coaching staff and our support staff. Our trainers and everybody. It’s great,” she said. “It’s something that we haven’t been able to celebrate, but we will celebrate it together at a later time.”
Staley is also now a four-time SEC Coach of the Year, including becoming the first in league history to win the title three straight seasons.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
