South Carolina coach Dawn Staley: We deserve to be the No. 1 overall seed

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said her team deserves to be the No. 1 overall seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament following a dominant run through the Southeastern Conference Tournament, culminating in an impressive 64-45 rout of No. 1 Texas in Sunday’s championship game.

The Gamecocks (30-3), who won the national championship last season, entered the SEC Tournament ranked fifth in the country and projected to be a No. 2 seed.

But after throttling three league foes by 18, 21 and 19 points, a No. 1 seed now seems to be a lock.

However, Staley thinks her team has earned more.

“When you win this tournament and play the schedule that we play, I do think we’re the No. 1 overall seed,” Staley said. “We manufactured our schedule to put ourselves in this situation. So I hope the committee doesn’t discount our entire resume. There isn’t anybody in the country that has played the schedule that we have played, that had share of the regular season title, won this tournament and beat the No. 1 team in the country. … there is no one.”

She argued that the Gamecocks’ 2024-25 resume — which includes 12 wins against Top 25 teams, including two against Texas — should count for something. South Carolina boasts a 7-3 record against Top 10 teams, with their three losses coming against No. 1 Texas, No. 3 Connecticut and No. 4 UCLA.

The Gamecocks’ 30-game regular-season schedule included 13 games against teams in the AP Top 25 at the time of the game — two more than any other ranked team.

Staley said was “shocked” to learn her team was the No. 2 seed coming into the tournament.

“If you get so much credit for beating us, and yet when we have had some of the toughest stretches in the country and came out of it unscathed, you can’t discount that,” Staley said. “You can’t discredit that. I’m going to speak up about it because you have to hear the voice of the other side. Because if you don’t think our body of works deserves it, then you need to speak out on it.”

She added: “I’m going to go down fighting for what our team earned.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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