March 20, 2026, 6:17 p.m. ET
- South Carolina coach Dawn Staley gifted Southern’s group fragrance samples after gamers complimented her scent.
- Southern gamers expressed their admiration for Staley, each as a coach and a particular person.
- Staley has been a vocal advocate for scheduling video games with HBCUs to raise their applications.
- The No. 1 seed Gamecocks are set to host the No. 16 seed Jaguars in a March Madness matchup.
COLUMBIA — Just as a result of a group desires to beat its March Madness opponent, doesn’t suggest it could’t present respect.
South Carolina women’s basketball and Southern are proof that competitiveness typically even heightens admiration.
The No. 1 seed Gamecocks (31-3) are internet hosting the No. 16 seed Jaguars (20-13) on March 21 (1 p.m. ET, ABC).
Southern beat Samford in a First Four recreation March 19, and South Carolina coach Dawn Staley spoke to each groups as soon as they received to Columbia.
Staley mentioned a few of the Southern gamers instructed her she smelled good, which prompted Staley to gift samples of the Louis Vuitton fragrance she wears to all the group.
“As soon as she got in the room, I want to say the whole room smelled like Dawn. All of my teammates just kind of noticed that so we told her,” Southern guard Jocelyn Tate mentioned.
“I was hugging her so much,” Southern guard D’Shantae Edwards mentioned. “I just kept smelling it. I kept going back for more hugs, too. I was like wow, she smells really good.”
Staley’s first NCAA Tournament was in 2012 and she or he hasn’t missed a March Madness since. This is Southern’s eighth March Madness look.
It’s the tenth time that South Carolina has hosted a regional, all underneath Staley.
“I think a lot of my teammates and I, we look up to Dawn,” Tate mentioned. “We’re definitely a fan of hers. Having her come in and be able to give us a speech and just talk to us I think it was very insightful and I’m very thankful for her … it shows what kind of person she is. A lot of coaches wouldn’t do that. So I’m very thankful and I’m just glad I got to hear her in person and get some insight from her.”
Southern is an HBCU positioned in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Staley has been vocal about scheduling video games with HBCUs.
When Staley had points scheduling video games in 2024, she agreed to a home-and-home collection with Coppin State, an HBCU in Maryland. Though Power 4 faculties do not usually journey to play mid-major faculties on the highway, the Gamecocks did on Jan. 18 in the midst of SEC play.
In September, Staley mentioned South Carolina scheduled video games with “some HBCUs just to lift up every aspect of our sport” and that “not every team will go and play an HBCU on their home court and we feel like it’s a great game, competition and coaching. If we can lift because we play the game and get some notoriety to the HBCUs, then we’ll do that.”
Though this matchup was out of her management, the affect continues to be the identical.
“I think it shows how good of a person she is, it’s not just about basketball,” Edwards mentioned. “She knows what being in an HBCU is like, she knows where it comes from the bottom to go to the top … I feel like her coming and giving us words of encouragement meant a lot as a team and honestly meant a lot to me as a person because it’s bigger than the game for her. It’s about growth as a player. It’s about growth as a person and you can see that when she was talking to us.”
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at LKesin@usatodayco.com. Follow her on X@Lulukesin and Bluesky@bylulukesin.bsky.social
