Dawn Staley surprises Southern players with Louis Vuitton gifts after First Four win

The South Carolina Gamecocks are a No. 1 seed in a regional once again, set to host the No. 16 Southern Jaguars in the first round. Since the first round of games are in Columbia, Staley was on-hand Thursday night, doing some in-person scouting of her Gamecocks' future opponent. 

The Jaguars beat No. 16 Samford 65-53 on Thursday night, and will play the Gamecocks on Saturday afternoon. Southern has now won two NCAA tournament games in consecutive seasons, an impressive feat for the HBCU program. 

To commemorate that fact and show respect to her future opponent, Staley gifted the Jaguar players with some serious swag. After the game, she gifted the women with some Louis Vuitton perfume. As expected, the women were quite excited to receive the gift:

Staley told reporters during her Friday press conference how the gifts came to be.

“ A couple of them said, ‘You smell good. ‘What are you wearing?’” Staley said via The State on Friday. “When I got home, my friend who works at Louis Vuitton sent me samples. Let me just give it to them. I just had enough to give to the whole team. It was just a small gesture. I had them and probably wouldn’t utilize them. I just did it.”

During Southern's victory over Samford, the Jaguars were led by Jaylia Reed, who had 16 points on the night. Her teammate, DeMya Porter, added anther 15 points and 12 rebounds. Samford missed its last eight of nine shot attempts to help the Jaguard cruise to victory.

Staley has made fashion a huge centerpiece of her game as a head coach. The Gamecocks head coach is known to wear lots of Louis during the season, and is one of her favorite designers. The Gamecocks are huge favorites over Southern in the first round, currently favored by 52.5 points. 

Kudos to Staley for the classy gesture! South Carolina will face Southern on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.

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