Staley praises Bueckers, says there’s room to elevate everyone as they ‘create history for our game’

TAMPA, Fla. (FOX Carolina) - Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks sat down for media interviews Saturday morning in Tampa, Fla. ahead of the NCAA Championship.

The head coach was asked about UConn star and projected number one overall pick in the WNBA Draft Paige Bueckers and her legacy with the Huskies.

Last year, Staley’s comments about Caitlin Clark’s legacy not be dependent on a national championship went viral and she said the narrative is shaping up similarly again this year with her team facing Bueckers and UConn.

“Sometimes we create these narratives about great players. Caitlin was one of them. Paige is one of them right now,” Staley said in a press conference. “Just because you’re a great player doesn’t mean you need to win that a national championship to legitimize it.

“Paige, she was legit from the moment she stepped on on this stage or prior to in Minnesota. Her career is legendary. She will leave a legacy at UConn. Whether she wins one or not.”

Staley took the opportunity with the question to remind the press room how detrimental a narrative like that can be to her players ahead of a career moment like the national championship.

“We tend to forget the narrative about what our kids have been able to do,” Staley said. “Going for their third [championship] in four years.

“So there’s a sentimental narrative about Paige. Great freaking player. Like anybody would start their franchise with Paige because of her efficient way of playing, because of her, she’s a winner because she’s cerebrally just knows the game just has an aura about about. And she’ll be the number one pick in the WNBA Draft, and she’ll be an Olympian. She will be all of those things, right? But when you put a narrative out there, everybody sees that. And it puts us at a disadvantage whether you want to believe so or not. You know? Officials see it. You know it’s all over TikTok. It’s all over Sports Center.”

Staley emphasized the determinate a single player focus does to the women’s game as a whole but also for her team specifically who will be facing off with Bueckers Sunday in the championship game.

“I can’t not address it because it’s happening like it happened to us last year,” Staley recalled. “You know, everything was about Caitlin Clark and her legacy and her ability to win a national championship. Yet we were coming to this thing undefeated, doing something that’s unprecedented at the time because it’s hard. I mean it’s hard and then we find ourselves back here in a similar situation.

“I want the sentiments to be about our players and what our players been able to do equally cause there’s room to do both,” Staley explained. “We can raise Paige up because she deserves that and we can raise our players up because they deserve that and that’s not talked about enough.

“There’s room for our game for all of us to be covered, let’s not let’s not choose a history. One history over another program’s history, let’s not choose one player over another player’s history because we’re all creating history for our game.”