South Carolina HC Dawn Staley opens up about never winning a ring in college: "I got into coaching to win a national championship"

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley has been lauded in several quarters for the excellent work she has done with the Gamecocks, going unbeaten the whole of last year in the regular season.

On an appearance on "Sue's Places," the outspoken Staley recently revealed why she became a coach after a legendary playing career, including an induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

"I didn't win a national championship in college ... I got into coaching to win a national championship," Staley said.

Dawn Staley played basketball for the Virginia Cavaliers, where she led them to the national championship game in 1991, losing 70-67 in overtime against the Tennessee Volunteers.

Coach Dawn Staley almost went into early retirement

The South Carolina Gamecocks have dominated under coach Dawn Staley, winning 43 consecutive SEC games. The No. 1 ranked team is 25-0 this season, four wins away from another unbeaten regular season.

Last year, the dominant Gamecocks were 36-1 and only lost the Final Four matchup against the record-breaking Caitlin Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes.

In the aftermath, the team lost all five of its starters, and Staley had to start rebuilding almost from scratch.

During an appearance on ESPN's "College GameDay," the well-regarded Staley made a startling comment about her future with the Gamecocks after the huge turnover from last season.

“Considering what it looked like in June — [I was considering] early retirement,” Staley said. “I was considering it, like seriously. I just called a meeting, not only just individual players, but our team, and they really weren’t in a good place.

“We lacked leadership. We lacked a lot of things, we lacked conditioning, we lacked discipline. But once you start forming your habits, they pick up on them fairly quickly.

“For the returners, they understood. But they were in a new situation themselves because they were the ones that are the example-setters. Now, they used to wade into the [freshmen] do their thing and they didn’t follow their lead.

“Now, they’re the they’re the leaders. Sometimes that takes you back because you have to change how you approach things because now you’re the one that people are looking at.”

Dawn Staley admitted that she might have overreacted with talk of her retirement after losing a majority of her team, considering how the current team has turned out.

“I thought it took a little longer than we wanted, but if I knew it was going to turn out like this, I probably wouldn’t have been that mad,” Staley said.

Even though she might not have won a championship ring in her college career, if the Gamecocks continue their current excellent trajectory, it's only a matter of time before her wish is fulfilled.