Dawn Staley wins a third national coach of the year honor

MINNEAPOLIS — Dawn Staley won her third major national coaching honor of the year on Thursday, adding the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association award to the Naismith and U.S. Basketball Writers awards she won Wednesday.

“Just want to thank the WBCA and all its voters for this prestigious honor,” the North Philly-born South Carolina coach said at the presentation. “Obviously, our village is strong, and because our village is strong — with our coaches, our support staff, our players — getting recognized like this doesn’t happen very often, but when you do, you give respect and honor to the people who make it happen behind the scenes.”

Staley’s Gamecocks have been the top-ranked team in the nation all season, with a 33-2 record and the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed. Star forward Aliyah Boston has swept all three national player of the year awards announced so far: the WBCA, Naismith, and Associated Press honors.

We’ll know Friday afternoon if Boston makes it a sweep. The USBWA’s award will be announced at 3:30 p.m. ET, a few hours before South Carolina faces Louisville in the night’s first national semifinal. Stanford and Connecticut meet in the later game (9:30 p.m., ESPN).

“Lord knows if I didn’t get this trophy, it would be heck on social media,” Staley quipped as her entire team watched from the seats in front of her. “So thank you, I appreciate it.”

The AP’s award is the only one Staley didn’t win. She finished second to Louisiana State’s Kim Mulkey, who won the honor in a vote that split among many candidates.

LSU went 26-6 this season, finishing second to South Carolina in the Southeastern Conference with a 13-3 conference record. The Tigers were a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, beat Jackson State in the first round, then lost to Ohio State.

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