South Carolina coach Dawn Staley on Ashlyn Watkins dunk – Source: Imagn

Dawn Staley saw Ashlyn Watkins’ dunk in Sunday’s game against the TCU Horned Frogs coming. The junior had been practicing getting all the way up in the last few South Carolina Gamecocks practices.

With that, the coach might have even fueled Watkins’ drive to launch a live-game slam, as Staley had been poking fun at the defensive forwards’ hops.

In her post-game interview after an 85-52 win against TCU, Staley revealed that the entire team joked with Ashlyn Watkins about her dunking ability. She also said Watkins was practicing dunking in the shootaround before facing the No. 9 team in the nation. (Start at 4:08)

“I mean Ashlyn’s been practicing dunks for the past couple of practices and we always kid her that she doesn’t have her legs anymore, she can’t dunk anymore um and she actually was in shootaround today dunking and missing,” Staley said.

“Then she makes a play like that and I knew she was she cleared the runway, she got to the left side of the floor and I knew she was going to attempt it.

I mean Prince was kind of closely behind her, so I didn’t think she was going to do it but then when she did it – the place exploded, our bench exploded and I think it’s great for our game.”

Ashlyn Watkins’s ability to dunk the ball is one of the rarest in women’s college basketball. She is only the eighth female hooper to rattle the rim in NCAA history, behind names like Candace Parker, Sylvia Fowles and more.