For that reason, she said she didn’t feel heartbroken. “You can see it happening in real-time, and you can understand why you got beat,” Staley said.
There wasn’t one reason South Carolina’s quest to become a repeat champion stopped short. Not in a 23-point loss whose scoreline somehow makes the 2025 title game seem closer than it was.
For 40 minutes, Staley had watched a better team fulfill its potential of being the best team in the nation. She saw Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong mesh to perfection for the Huskies in the season’s most important game. By the time the title game’s margin ballooned to 32 midway through the fourth quarter, Staley had tried seemingly every lineup combination she and her staff could think up. No matter who South Carolina cycled through, the results barely changed. It was then that she took her accomplished seniors out.
A year after completing the first undefeated season in school history, the Gamecocks’ imperfect season came to an imperfect end. The Huskies delivered the final, and most lasting, blow.
South Carolina sought to become the first repeat champions since 2016, and win Staley a third title in four years in the process. Staley sought to maintain personal perfection, too, after winning titles as a coach in her first three national championship appearances.
FINAL | USC 59, UCONN 82
Thank you for your support all season long FAMS. pic.twitter.com/sk1cDXSByc
— South Carolina Women’s Basketball (@GamecockWBB) April 6, 2025
Sunday’s loss does little to diminish that history. Losing just four games in 2024-25, the Gamecocks remain a giant in the sport, and a program that is achieving unmatched success in a period of burgeoning parity around women’s college basketball. Yet, South Carolina’s loss to UConn revealed plenty of imperfections. Before the final buzzer sounded, Staley had already begun thinking of how they would proceed.
“You start thinking about in real-time what we need if (we’re) put in this situation again to be better and to have a different outcome,” she said.
Despite last season’s success, the Gamecocks didn’t focus on completing a perfect season. From the outset of summer workouts, South Carolina coaches didn’t bring up winning streaks. They instead zeroed in on building productive habits. Staley would often ask her coaches what those non-negotiables would be. The Gamecocks sought to play together, play hard, rebound, dictate on defense and remain hungry. Against almost every opponent, they did just that.
But the Huskies proved a challenge too grand for South Carolina. Not once, but twice.
UConn beat the Gamecocks by 29 points in mid-February in Columbia, S.C. The defeat snapped the Gamecocks’ 71-game ...
