Dawn Staley Details Why Loss to Caitlin Clark, Iowa Was Toughest at South Carolina

South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley has cultivated a women's college basketball dynasty since taking her coaching talents to the Gamecocks in 2008.

Across that time, she has won three NCAA national championships and been to the Final Four seven times, including in each of the past five seasons. Despite this unprecedented success, Staley has also experienced some brutal defeats. The most recent of these was when South Carolina was blown out by the UConn Huskies in the 2025 national championship game.

However, one loss sticks out among the rest for Staley, which she detailed during a June 3 appearance on the Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay podcast.

"The year before we won [in 2024], we lost to Iowa in the semifinals, and that one hurt me really bad," Staley said. "The failures hurt more than the victories."

When asked whether that loss to Iowa (and star guard Caitlin Clark) in the 2023 Final Four was the toughest loss of her coaching career, Staley said, "Yes. Yes. Not for me, but for my players. We had a great team! They did all the right things. Great people, great competitors, so I wanted them to win... and when that didn't happen, they were hurt. And that hurt me. That hurt me to my core."

She then added that that defeat made her ask God why this happened — and that the answer to that question came a year later, when the Gamecocks won the 2024 national title.