Caitlin Clark forced Dawn Staley to make unprecedented South Carolina change
Aliyah Boston shed light on the major impact that Caitlin Clark had on South Carolina after the Iowa product ousted the Gamecocks from the 2023 NCAA Tournament
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Caitlin Clark ousted Dawn Staley’s South Carolina from the 2023 NCAA Tournament(Image: Getty Images)
Aliyah Boston revealed the pivotal change that Caitlin Clark forced South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley to make after ousting the Gamecocks from the NCAA Tournament.
Before joining forces on the Indiana Fever, Boston and Clark faced off in the Final Four of the 2023 NCAA Tournament while playing for South Carolina and Iowa, respectively. Despite entering the contest as heavy underdogs, the Hawkeyes narrowly fended off the Gamecocks, 77–73 — prompting Staley to describe the outcome as the “toughest loss” of her coaching career.
One season removed from winning the 2022 national championship, Boston and co. appeared destined to secure back-to-back titles upon entering the Final Four with a spotless 36-0 record.
Clark swiftly put a wrench in these plans, amassing 41 points, six rebounds and eight assists on 15-of-31 shooting from the field and 5-of-17 from behind the arc in Iowa’s upset victory over South Carolina.
On the latest episode of the ‘Post Moves’ podcast, Boston shed light on the Gamecocks’ mindset during the 2022-23 campaign, which marked her last year in Columbia.
In response to one fan who asked if her coach “adjusted strategy or method the following season [after winning a national championship] to combat complacency,” Boston replied: “Honestly, Coach Staley really didn’t have to make any adjustments, because we knew that teams were coming for us every single time that we stepped on that floor.
“So for us, it was just you understood what it took to win a championship the year before, and you knew that teams were gonna give you their best shot. So you had to be ready.
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Dawn Staley conceded that the 2023 Final Four defeat was the toughest loss of her career(Image: Getty Images)
“The way that we approached practice was always intense. So we didn’t really have to make any crazy adjustments, because we knew that if we wanted to go back-to-back, we would have to grind it.”
As Boston noted, however, this fierce mentality only took the Gamecocks so far. “I mean, we made it pretty far,” she said. “Then we met Caitlin. Lame.”
It seems as though Boston isn’t the only one who’s still not over South Carolina’s Final Four defeat. While making a recent appearance on the ‘Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay’ podcast back in June, Staley admitted that the loss was an incredibly tough pill to swallow.
“The year before we won the championship, we lost to Iowa in the semifinals, and that one hurt me really bad,” she said. “The failures hurt more than the victories.”
