“She started just blossoming”: Dawn Staley hails Aliyah Boston as the “smartest player” Gamecocks ever recruited

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley hailed former player and Indiana Fever center Aliyah Boston on Wednesday's episode of the "Post Moves" podcast with Candace Parker and the star. Parker asked the three-time national champion coach how Boston was during her freshman season.

She shared that the 6-foot-5 Saint Thomas, US Virgin Islands, native wasn't talking much due to her respect for the team's senior players. Boston only opened up when Staley arranged personal conversations with the center.

"I think once we started having those conversations, she started just blossoming like I mean she is super smart," Staley said (Timestamp: 17:42). "Like she probably came in as the smartest player like ever in the history of our program."

Staley continued that Boston is the kind of player who plays with authority, meaning she could impose her will all the time and get what she wants at the end of each play.

The center played 138 games with South Carolina and averaged 14.1 points, 10.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.0 steals and 2.4 blocks per outing. She helped the Gamecocks win their second women's basketball title in 2022.

She was picked No. 1 overall by Indiana in the 2023 WNBA draft and is one of the main contributors for the Fever in the past three seasons.

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Dawn Staley was amazed by Aliyah Boston's gigantic strides in dancing

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley was also proud of Aliyah Boston's big improvement in dancing. She told Candace Parker that at the start, Boston was better off playing basketball than dancing, and she was surprised by the way she improved as time passed.

"Her basketball was much better much quicker advancing than her dancing," Staley said of Boston (Timestamp 20:15). "But I never thought her dancing would get off to a place where she would make it public because before it could not be."

The three-time national coach recalled that her dance moves weren't that polished until constant practice and TikTok sessions did the trick.

Staley also mentioned Boston's teammates in South Carolina and Indiana for helping the center improve her craft and become a viral sensation on TikTok.

Aliyah Boston's Indiana Fever holds onto the third spot in the Eastern Conference standings, 2 1/2 games behind second-placers New York Liberty and four games behind table-toppers Atlanta Dream.

Boston came up with 22 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and six steals to lead Indiana to a 76-75 win over the Los Angeles Sparks and move up to sixth place in the WNBA standings with five games remaining.