South Carolina Basketball: Dawn Staley wins Naismith Award again

South Carolina basketball fans have gotten used to the Gamecocks racking up awards. In recent years, USC has seen two different players earn National Player of the Year Awards, their head coach win multiple National Coach of the Year honors, several players win positional awards, and a long list of Gamecocks make All-SEC and All-American squads.

On Wednesday, as the first event in the lead-up to the Final Four this weekend, women's college basketball fans got to see the Naismith Awards announce the winners of the National Coach of the Year, National Player of the Year, and National Defensive Player of the Year.

As many expected, South Carolina basketball coach Dawn Staley is the 2023-2024 Naismith National Coach of the Year. With a potential undefeated season (would be just the 10th time that's ever happened) and 3rd national championship (would become just the 5th program to accomplish that), Staley is an easy choice, especially since many believed this would be a rebuilding year for her team. This is her third year in a row winning the award and the fourth time in five seasons.

As has been the case for several years, Coach Staley had her entire team in attendance as she has stated on numerous occasions that the award reflects her team even more than it reflects her. One of her players, post player Kamilla Cardoso was also nominated for the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year Award, making the entire team's attendance that much more special.

Kamilla Cardoso was nominated for the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year honor but did not win it as Stanford's Cameron Brink brought home the honor previously won by Aliyah Boston for both the 2021-2022 season and the 2022-2023 campaign.

Staley, Cardoso, and the rest of the Gamecocks will take on the NC State Wolfpack on Friday for the first game of the Final Four. The game will tip off at 7:00 PM EST and will be broadcast on ESPN and streamed on the ESPN app.