COLUMBIA, S.C. — It is almost impossible to imagine South Carolina women’s basketball without Dawn Staley. Three national championships. Six consecutive Final Fours. One of the most dominant sustained runs in the history of women’s college basketball. Staley did not just rebuild the Gamecocks — she transformed them into a dynasty that now sets the standard for the entire sport.
But in 2008, she was not the first choice.
The Coach Who Said No
When former South Carolina athletic director Eric Hyman went looking for a new women’s basketball coach in 2008, his primary target was Sylvia Hatchell — the longtime North Carolina head coach who had won a national championship with the Tar Heels in 1994 and built one of the most respected programs in the ACC.
The logic was sound. Hatchell was the most proven candidate in the field, the only one who had won a title as a head coach. She carried deep roots in the Carolinas basketball community, dating back to her days at Division II Francis Marion where she won national titles at the AIAW and NAIA levels in the 1980s. She knew the region, she knew the recruits, and she had demonstrated she could win at the highest level.
She was offered the job. Twice.
“I was offered the job,” Hatchell told ESPN reporter Debbie Antonelli in a 2024 interview with USA Today Sports. “But I just stayed at North Carolina. Dawn has done a great job. I was offered the South Carolina job twice.”
UNC athletic director Dick Baddour, recognizing the threat, launched an aggressive campaign to retain his coach. It worked — and it came with a significant financial reward for Hatchell. She used the South Carolina offer as leverage for a $330,000 base salary increase, remaining in Chapel Hill through the 2019 season.
What Hatchell’s Departure Ultimately Looked Like
Hatchell’s decision to stay at North Carolina preserved a successful career — she finished with a 1,023-405 overall record and brought two additional teams to the Final Four beyond her 1994 championship. But her tenure did not end on her own terms. She resigned in April 2019 amid accusations of making racially insensitive remarks and pressuring injured players to compete. The circumstances cast a shadow over an otherwise remarkable coaching legacy.
The contrast with what Staley has built in Columbia is stark — not simply in terms of championships, but in terms of program culture, national reputation, and the clarity of her standing in the sport’s history.
The Field Hyman Was Considering
Beyond Hatchell, Hyman’s search included Wes Moore, then the head coach at Chattanooga, and Holly Warlick, who was at that point a longtime assistant under Pat Summitt at Tennessee. Both were credible candidates. Neither would have produced what followed.
Staley, a Philadelphia native with WNBA superstar credentials and a point guard’s understanding of the game, was also in the conversation — and ultimately the choice. She had not yet coached at the Power Five level, which made the hire carry some risk. Hyman ultimately bet on her potential rather than Hatchell’s proven track record.
What the Right Call Produced
The seventeen years since that decision speak for themselves. Staley has won three national championships — 2017, 2022, and 2024 — and is two wins away from a fourth that would move her into sole possession of third place on the all-time list. She has won ten SEC regular season titles. She has reached the Final Four six consecutive times. She has developed players who have gone on to become WNBA stars, All-Americans, and Olympians.
She has also done something harder to quantify but equally important: she has made South Carolina women’s basketball a cultural institution. The program does not just win — it recruits the best players in the country, develops them into better players and people, and sends them into the world as ambassadors for everything Staley believes the game can be.
None of that happens if Sylvia Hatchell accepts the offer.
Hyman’s instinct to pursue Hatchell first was defensible in 2008. His decision to ultimately go with Staley was transformative. And his willingness to take a chance on a coach who had not yet proven herself at the Power Five level turned out to be the most consequential hire in the history of South Carolina athletics.
The Gamecocks tip off against UConn in Phoenix on Friday night. Dawn Staley will be on the sideline, as she has been for seventeen years, coaching one of the most respected programs in the sport.
It almost went a very different direction. It didn’t. And women’s college basketball is better for it.
