South Carolina Basketball: Dawn Staley wins two more major awards

South Carolina basketball coach Dawn Staley sits atop the college basketball coaching world right now.

Leading the only program in the country that has multiple national championships since the 2016-2017 campaign, Coach Staley, understandably, has won more national coach of the year honors than any other coach during that stretch.

The Naismith National Coach of the Year Award has belonged to Staley is 4 of the past 5 seasons, and the same is true for her recent wins of the NCBWA (National College Basketball Writers Association) National Coach of the Year. Staley also was chosen by The Athletic as the Coach of the Year, even though that publication measures its standard based almost solely on overachievement.

On Thursday, Dawn Staley was announced as the winner of the Associated Press National Coach of the Year and the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's National Coach of the Year. Somehow, it is just her second time bringing home the trophy from the AP (she also won after the 2019-2020 season), but this is her 4th win from WBCA in the past 5 seasons.

As Coach Staley makes a clean sweep of award season, it comes as no shock to anyone that follows women's college basketball. Her Gamecocks were expected to be a good team that likely would fall short of being great as they entered a "rebuild" after losing all five starters from last season. Instead, USC is looking to become just the fifth program ever to go undefeated and the fifth program ever to win three national championships.

South Carolina basketball will take on the NC State Wolfpack in the Final Four on Friday night at 7:00 PM EST. The game will be played in Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio and will be broadcast on ESPN and streamed on the ESPN app.