Dawn Staley was sent a reminder by the NCAA of how South Carolina has struggled as of late, especially coming off the heels of a 29-point loss to Geno Auriemma and UConn.

Dawn Staley was given another reminder of South Carolina’s struggles as of late.

Just days before Selection Sunday, the NCAA released the bracket for the top 16 in women’s basketball and the Gamecocks find themselves in a suboptimal position. Though South Carolina is No. 5 overall in the rankings, the university finds themselves in the Birmingham 4 region.

However, because of South Carolina’s loss to UConn, that dropped the Gamecocks from the first to the second spot. Derita Dawkings, the chair of the NCAA Division I women’s basketball committee, admitted that the loss is a reason why the Gamecocks fell in the standings.

“The UConn-South Carolina game, that was a 29-point win for UConn, is part of what led to South Carolina not being on the one line anymore,” Dawkins said on ESPN2. “If you look at our one, two and three, our overall one, two and three, those teams have not lost since the last reveal.”

In the Birmingham 4 region, it is Notre Dame with the No. 1 seed, then South Carolina, Tennessee and Oklahoma rounding out the bracket. In the Spokane 3 region, it is USC, UConn, Duke and Kentucky filling out that section.

UCLA, LSU, North Carolina and Kansas State are in the Spokane 1 region while Texas, NC State, TCU and Ohio State finish off the top 16 in the Birmingham 2 region. With South Carolina looking vulnerable for the first time in seemingly a long time, Staley had choice words for her time after the 29-point loss to UConn less than two weeks ago.

Dawn Staley and the South Carolina are coming off a tough loss to UConn ( Image: Photo by Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images)
“Since we’re on a higher education campus, F. F. F. F. F,” she told reporters after the loss. “I mean, it’s, this season is a long season, right? You play a team like UConn, like now, you win. It may have some ill effect to the next game. You lose, and it definitely will wake you up. So, hopefully, it will be the latter, and we can get back going against Arkansas on Thursday.”

And despite how badly the Gamecocks lost to the Huskies, the legendary head coach admitted that there wasn’t much to do except for her to get the team back on the path to winning. In Staley’s mind, that was to just get back to basics and instilling confidence in her players.

“I mean, you just get back to your habits,” Staley shared when asked if South Carolina were planning on changing how they approached games against marquee opponents. “We’re not going to change, wholesale change what we’re doing. I mean, a loss like this is about toughness.

“A loss like this isn’t about anything besides getting our players to just keeping the main thing the main thing. Obviously, when you lose like this, there’s something else that’s going on that isn’t just about basketball. So we got to figure that out and get back on it. Get back on it.”

The full NCAA Tournament bracket will be announced on March 16.