“She’s quite incredible, quite an anomaly when it comes to how many eyeballs she’s bringing on the game”

Legendary South Carolina Gamecocks women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley needs no introduction. One of the most respected figures in the game, she is the only woman to have been inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach.

Staley led South Carolina to three NCAA championship victories (2017, 2022 and 2024) - the program’s only honors at national level, and boasts a 475–110 record during her 17 years at the helm.

So it’s easy to see why Dawn’s opinion on basketball, and sport in general, matters. This week, the Philly-born coach was the special guest on Kylie Kelce’s Not Gonna Lie podcast, where she was asked about Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark - a player she has faced in the NCAA tournament with the Gamecocks, before Caitlin joined the Fever.

It was a question that Kylie had to ask - is Caitlin the best player Staley has ever faced during her 25-year coaching career?

“The best player we coached against? Well, I only coached against Caitlin twice - both times she had over 30. I don’t know if there’s a player that I coached against that had 30 points against us in the two times that they played - one was a win, the other was a loss,” Staley replied. “I would say, she’s probably the most difficult to scout, to play against in that she can beat you in a variety of ways.

“She can beat you, obviously with her three-point shot, but for me, the most dangerous thing about Caitlin Clark is her passing ability - her ability to make other people better, her ability to have other people’s production along with her production - that’s how you win,“ she added.

Dawn Staley explains how difficult it is to defend against Caitlin Clark

Staley admits that the biggest headache she had when the Gamecocks faced the Hawkeyes in last year’s NCCA championship final, was how to stop Clark.

“If you can get somebody to produce along with her - if you can take that away, that was our emphasis when we beat them in the finals last year‚” the coach explained. “We said, Caitlin Clark’s gonna get 30. Which means, she can’t have 12 assists - because if she’s got 12 assists then she’s involving her teammates in a way that it doesn’t quite add up [for us]. We can’t produce enough points like they can. And it’s probably easy points - they’re probably layups, they’re not three-point shots because we can defend that. It’s hard to defend a layup, a transition when she’s picking you apart when they’ve created an advantage in transition”.

South Carolina won the game 87–75, with Clark the top scorer on-court, put up 30 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

Caitlin Clark attracting a new generation of fans

And there’s another quality that the Fever star has brought to women’s basketball - the game has never been watched by so many people. New records were set for attendance figures (2,353,735) and TV audiences (54 million) in 2024.

“I think she’s quite incredible, quite an anomaly when it comes to how many eyeballs that she’s bringing to the game - new eyeballs,” Staley says, while making a point that women’s basketball as a sport is much bigger and far more complex than one player who, right now is getting all of the attention.

But as with everything, there is always a negative side to counter the positive. The South Carolina coach feels that some of the newer fans, who have attracted to the sport by the likes of Clark and Angel Reese, “only want her to do well, only want you to speak very highly of her, want you to agree with what they agree with... and that’s kinda hard when we are critics who look at everyone who plays the game”.

She elaborated her point, adding, “If you are Caitlin Clark’s opponent, you want to zero in on the things that she doesn’t do well, right? She’s a risk taker when it comes to passing the ball. So she’ll turn the ball over some - and that’s a great thing if you’re her opponent”.

How A’ja Wilson can improve her game

However, there is no such thing as a perfect player and nobody, no matter who they are, is above occasional criticism, the coach was keen to stress. “I coached the best player in the world - A’ja Wilson, and I tear her game apart. I criticize her, and she’s got better in certain areas - I thought she could be a better rebounder, I thought she could be a better defender... I know she can score, I know she can shoot the mid-range better than anybody in the game - but can you shoot the three? Can you counter what you do well? Cause that’s what people are gonna take away! If they take away your mid-range game, yes you can get close to the basket but close to the basket means you’re gonna attract a lot more people... So being able to knock down a three-ball will make her unstoppable. If I’m gonna criticize my own, I’m gonna criticize the people that are in the game. Nobody plays this game perfectly - no one".

More viewers, more interest - a win-win situation

Staley ended, “Since we’re talking about Caitlin Clark, I will say this: when we did play them in the championship last year, there were over 24 million people that watched the game, the average was about 18 million. Do I think that people tune in to watch Caitlin? Absolutely! Give her all the credit, but when they tuned in, they [also] saw a South Carolina team that was full of incredible talent, that made our great game even better. She brought more eyeballs to our game but they found out that there’s more really great players in our game - that are worthy of being talked about and worthy of credit so I think it’s a win-win situation”.

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