SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS BASKETBALL
It's day two of SEC Media Day and Dawn Staley made her annual media day Paul Finebaum appearance during the Gamecocks' trip to Birmingham.
She was joined by seniors Ty Harris and Mikiah Herbert-Harrigan, and this is a snippet of what they had to say.
Dawn Staley on sustained success: “When your players are eager to compete for a national championship it puts you in a great mindset as a coach. Obviously we are eager to get back out there, eager to cut the nets down again. It was an incredible experience and we want all of our players to experience.”
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Staley on what makes her mad during practice and games: “The repetition of error. Once coach told me, and I don’t use this very often, she said the repetition is the lack of intelligence. I think the repetition of error is a mental breakdown. We try to mentally players to perform at a high level when the stakes are at the highest and when they’re at the lowest because you’re always teaching to be perfect in what you execute.”
Staley on when she gets mad at mental errors: “With our players, if it’s something we haven’t practiced or haven’t game planned for—someone caught us with some strategic adjustment—I can’t fault them. I have to fault myself for not preparing them. I’ve been a player. I coach from a player’s viewpoint. Some things happen through the course of a game that just happen. I’m coaching for the next play. I don’t coach what just happened. I’m coaching so that mistake won’t happen again and repeat itself.”
Also see: Bryson Allen-Williams breaks down the big win over Georgia
On bringing in the top recruiting class and those freshmen working in with the returners: “We got the best leaders. They’ve been around our program for three years. They’ve won a national championship. They’re the best to lead our team into new heights of our basketball program.”
Ty Harris on Dawn Staley: “She’s one of the main reasons I came to South Carolina, just because of who she is. She knows a lot of things and she’s done everything I want to go going forward. She can help me on the way just because she has connections outside of basketball and she can help me along the way. She’s a very real person, a very funny person. She’s a good mother figure.”
Mikiah Herbert Harrigan on a time Staley's gotten mad at her: “I can’t think about one specific time but one time I passed her the ball.