South Carolina Basketball: Dawn Staley’s team to make history starting next season overseas
By Kevin Miller
According to an announcement from the University of South Carolina, Dawn Staley and the South Carolina basketball team will begin the 2023-2024 season in unique fashion. Not only will the Gamecocks face off against another elite program in Notre Dame, but the two teams will play the season opener in Paris.
The November 6th game will be the first-ever NCAA regular season basketball game to be played in Paris. The matchup makes sense from the French perspective as Notre Dame is named for the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and the Catholic institution is heavily linked to the Catholic cathedral in many ways. The Gamecocks fit into the picture as the best program in recent women’s basketball, and Staley has played all over the world as an Olympic player and coach.
As for the game itself, both South Carolina and Notre Dame have been projected as preseason top-10 teams for next season. Fighting Irish Head Coach Niele Ivey was the ACC’s Coach of the Year, and Staley won the award as the SEC’s Coach of the Year (and the National Coach of the Year). South Carolina’s excellence has been long-sustained, and Notre Dame appears to be a program back on the rise after a couple of non-winning seasons in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.
Notre Dame boasts three All-ACC first-team members from last year’s team in Olivia Miles, Sonia Citron, and Alyssa Ustby, one second-team performer in Maddy Westbeld, and an All-Freshman All-ACC honoree in KK Bransford. All five players are returning to play for Ivey and the Irish next season.
South Carolina is experiencing more attrition as five Gamecocks were selected in Monday’s WNBA Draft (Aliyah Boston, Laeticia Amihere, Zia Cooke, Brea Beal, and Victaria Saxton). Another two seniors (Kierra Fletcher and Olivia Thompson) are also moving on from the program. An elite recruiting class is coming to Columbia, and several bench players such as Raven Johnson and Ashlyn Watkins are expected to step up in major ways. Kamilla Cardoso, the 2022-2023 SEC 6th Woman of the Year also returns to provide one of the best post presences in the conference.
The matchup between the Gamecocks and Fighting Irish will be one of the top out-of-conference matchups in all of college basketball next season, and considering the fact that the game will be in Paris only adds to the intrigue.
Fans who follow Coach Staley’s gameday ‘fits can assume that the women’s games top coach will be making at least one trip to the Louis Vuitton Global Headquarters while in Paris.
Tickets and pricing information will be made available later this spring, as will television broadcast details.