Jalen Hurts shouts out Dawn Staley during national championship game: ‘She’s just special’

Jalen Hurts’ Alabama squad may have been knocked out of the men’s Final Four on Saturday night, but another team he pulls for was playing for a championship Sunday.

Hurts was in Cleveland supporting Dawn Staley’s South Carolina squad as it battled Iowa in the women’s national title game. He stopped by the set of WNBA legends Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi’s alternate broadcast and discussed his bond with the Gamecocks’ two-time national champion coach, a North Philly native who starred at Dobbins Tech and also once coached at Temple.

Hurts and Staley’s relationship goes back to the quarterback’s early days in Philly, when Duce Staley was on the Eagles’ staff. Hurts also mentioned his community work at the Hank Gathers Recreation Center.

“There are definitely deep ties there, but I love great coaching,” he said. “I love and respect how she goes about it, the leader she is, the competitor she is, how she’s able to relate. She’s just special.”

Hurts was spotted during the game sitting with Duce Staley, whom he said is Dawn’s cousin (Duce and Dawn are not actually related).

He also offered a shout-out to the Norristown-raised Geno Auriemma, the longtime UConn coach who coached Taurasi and Bird and has won 11 national championships and added that the level of attention around women’s basketball is “amazing.” The national semifinals set TV viewership records, with the Iowa-UConn showdown drawing 14.2 million viewers on ESPN.

“That’s kind of what the focal point needs to be with everything,” he said, “when you see amazing talent that’s all getting recognized, and they’re putting on a show, too.”

» READ MORE: Iowa edges UConn in the Final Four, 71-69, and not just because of Caitlin Clark

Hurts appeared on the broadcast at halftime as South Carolina led, 49-46 after Iowa opened the game on a 10-0 run. He admitted that he thinks a championship is a key to attaining G.O.A.T. status and shared how the loss in Super Bowl LVII galvanized him.

“I think it’s changed my perspective on a lot of things because I don’t think a lot of people realize how much of a fire that lights in you,” he said. “That’s the standard. The standard. You never want to compromise the standard in anything that you’re doing, and so once you get the taste of it, it’s like, ‘Man, that’s what I want, and I’ve got to do everything I’ve got to do to get it.’”

As the second half began, Hurts complimented the play of younger Gamecocks like freshman star MiLaysia Fulwiley: “She’s got game.” And, as South Carolina began to pull away with a 15-2 run that extended into the second half, Hurts offered advice for blocking out external noise.

“I just think it’s important to keep the main thing, the main thing,” Hurts said in a response to a question from Bird. “Everybody’s going to have an opinion … but just do you.”

» READ MORE: South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso is unstoppable and makes her team the title-game favorite

And as Staley won her third national title, she got some social media love from another North Philly basketball star, Kahleah Copper. Copper, who starred at Prep Charter and Rutgers, was traded to the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury this offseason after seven seasons with the Chicago Sky.

Diane Richardson, who now coaches the Owls, offered her congratulations, too.

Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown also chimed in after the 87-75 win. Like Hurts, Brown played collegiately at a conference foe of South Carolina in Mississippi.

It wasn’t just Philly athletes. Lakers star LeBron James chimed in, too.

Staley’s squad also received love from the entertainment and politics world for its undefeated finish. South Carolina capped the 10th undefeated season in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history and became the fifth school to do so.

After she and the Gamecocks were presented with the trophy, Staley expressed gratitude for Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, who led her team to the national championship game in consecutive years and will likely be the first pick in the WNBA draft on April 15.

“I want to personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport,” she said. “She carried a heavy load for our sport, and it just is not going to stop here on the collegiate tour, but when she is the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft, she is going to lift that league up as well. So, Caitlin Clark, if you’re out there, you are one of the G.O.A.T.s of our game, and we appreciate you.”

Clark, the all-time leading scorer in Division I history, is a two-time Naismith player of the year, a Wooden Award winner, and a three-time winner of the Dawn Staley Award, which is given to the nation’s top guard.