TAMPA, Fla. — There was no anger for South Carolina women’s basketball, at least not outwardly.

Reality had set in, goodbyes were in progress and everyone knew what the situation was as the grains of sand in the 2024-25 season hourglass tumbled down towards inevitable finality.

South Carolina was really, really good. By any possible measure, the second-best team in the nation. But clearly, emphatically not the best.

UConn blew out South Carolina 82-59 in the National Championship Game, a performance which clarified what most suspected all spring. There was nothing the Gamecocks — or anyone else — could do on either end of the floor to slow down the Uconn freight train.

"Our kids gave it all they had,” Dawn Staley said. “When you can understand why you lost and when you've been on the other side of that three times, you understand it. You can swallow it."

They lost because their opponent was more talented and played better, a reality of sports South Carolina is more than familiar with after living nearly exclusively on the other side of that pendulum for the last half decade.

In a basketball sense, it was over early. South Carolina never closed the deficit to single-digits after halftime. The questions for most of the second half revolved around how to contextualize this team, its impact on South Carolina’s program and what a game like this means moving forward.

“Much respect to UConn,” Staley said. “They did a masterful job in executing on both sides of the basketball. At the same time, I have to say goodbye to a senior class that had a historical impact on our game, our program, our conference, our city and our state.”

This era for Staley’s Gamecocks, one defined by almost nothing but winning, dominance, proving people wrong and having fun, ended with a thud.

Staley’s Gamecocks have four Final Four losses around three National Championships, all with completely different flavors. The 2015 loss was heartbreak and optimism, the joy of finally making it for the first time combined with the pain of a close game. In 2021 it was pure agony, a 1-point loss on a miss at the buzzer. And 2023 was stunned shock after an undefeated season went up in smoke.

This one? Disappointment, of course. But mostly gratitude for the group, this era and all of the steps of the journey, even if said journey did not get all the way over the finish line.

“I'm just not as upset as you would think I would be,” senior Bree Hall said. “I've won two national championships. It's upsetting, of course, to lose and you're right there…I just had such a great experience here.”

Hall, Sania Feagin and Raven Johnson make up a senior class that has changed South Carolina forever, elevating it from "A really good program that was great with A’ja Wilson" into the sport’s perennial force.

When they arrived on campus the Gamecocks had been to three Final Fours, now it is seven. The lone National Championship banner hanging from the Colonial Life Arena rafters when they first played there is now joined by two more.

This group never lost an NCAA Tournament game before the Final Four, and only lost seven times period in four unforgettable seasons. They didn’t make South Carolina what it is. That honor goes to the great Gamecocks of the early Staley years responsible for laying the foundation.

But they did make it better. And that type of elevation from a program already in rarified air is hard to come by.

“They're just great human beings,” Staley said. “They've allowed me to coach them being my uncensored self. Not a lot of coaches are able to just be who they are.”

The program itself is not going anywhere. Johnson actually still could come back because of her redshirt season as a freshman. Feagin, Hall and Te-Hina Paopao — not a full four-year senior with the program but still a senior who transferred in and made an immeasurable two-year impact — will be gone. But MiLaysia Fulwiley and Tessa Johnson will be upperclassmen next year. Joyce Edwards will return as a sophomore, and Chloe Kitts will be the senior leader. Two McDonald's All-Americans are coming in. Staley already referenced some transfer portal activity “in the works” to help add experience to the roster.

Nobody would be surprised to see South Carolina playing for a National Championship again in 364 days.

“I know what it feels like to lose,” Edwards said. “And I don't want to be here again.”

Late in the fourth quarter, outcome more than decided, Hall put her arms around a dejected Johnson. As she finished out the final minutes sharing a bench with her after four years as teammates, she had a message.

"Keep your head up," Hall said. "I didn't want any pictures of her crying because she has been amazing to us. She's been amazing to this program.”

This was a bitter end to a program-defining era, a senior class departing Columbia with four Final Fours, four SEC regular season titles, three SEC Tournament titles and two National Championships.

South Carolina was not the best team, but it walked out with its heads held high. Hall made sure of it.

One last act of senior leadership from the player who has defined it.

“Of course it hurts,” she concluded. “But I can't express how appreciative I am of this program. This is something that people dream of having, of experiencing.”

They were not champions in 2025, but they are champions.

And always will be.

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