How Dawn Staley, South Carolina beat Caitlin Clark, Iowa for women’s national championship

That's three straight possessions without a paint touch for Kamilla Cardoso... Don't love that for South Carolina.

Lisa Bluder's final message to her Iowa team: "All right, y'all - let's go have some fun."

The two coaching staffs for today's game just wished each other luck. And as Dawn Staley walked back to her bench, she traded fist-pounds with everyone seated at the scorer's table. "Have a good one," she told almost everyone.

The officials for today's game: Brenda Pantoja, Joseph Vasily and Angelica Suffren.

The joke about Iowa is that there’s nothing here.

It’s boring. It’s flyover country. It’s so flat that if a breeze comes off the Missouri River, which carves out most of the Western border of the state, you feel it on the Eastern abutting Mississippi River.

They say that there are more cows than people (OK, that one is true).

But here’s what you don’t know if you didn’t grow up here, if you didn’t spend countless weekend mornings driving across this state to gymnasiums scattered around the Midwest: There’s no sunrise in the country quite like an Iowa sunrise. When a state is this flat and you can see this far, your perspective changes. You might be focused on the exit ahead of you, but 20 miles ahead, you see that first bulb of orange peek over the horizon as the rest of the sky somehow fades from black to dark purple. And then, with increasing speed, it all bursts into a gradient of yellows and pinks and blues. You see the full sky, no distractions, while the mile markers whoosh past.

It was on these roads, in the middle of nowhere, that Caitlin Clark spent many mornings of her adolescent life riding with her parents to basketball tournaments and practices. From West Des Moines to Wisconsin to Illinois to Nebraska and back again.

Anything within seven hours?

“Yep,” says Clark’s dad Brent, with real Midwestern dad energy, “that’s drivable.”

She texted friends and listened to music. They talked about Caitlin’s game and dreamed about her goal of getting to the WNBA, discussing what it would take to get there. It was all hypothetical then.

The beauty of this place is that it feels like you can see for a hundred miles. That’s also the thing that can drive you mad. Because when you’re on these roads and one silo replaces the next, it’s natural to question if you’re getting anywhere until you’ve arrived.

So it’s fitting that this place — the boring, flat, cow-riddled Midwest — became the epicenter of one of the biggest shows college basketball has ever seen. In the dark and cold of a typically dreary Iowa winter, it was Clark who filled every seat in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Never mind the freezing temps or the 17 hours of darkness that descend upon this place in the peak of winter, Clark chose here. This winter, she made Iowa the most exciting show on hardwood.

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CLEVELAND — In the wake of her team’s worst-played game of the season, Iowa coach Lisa Bluder had a choice to make.

Her offseason plan of competing with a traditional center and power forward on the floor concurrently was highlighted in a 65-58 home loss to Kansas State back in November. Bluder dabbled with the same type of offense the Hawkeyes used in their journey to the 2023 national championship game. But her personnel was different from that run, and Bluder knew it.

“I think everybody goes into the season with kind of a game plan, right?” Bluder said. “You go into a game with a game plan, and you think this is what’s going to be best. But you’ve got to make adjustments along the way. If it’s going astride, if it’s not going as well as you think, you’ve got to change things.”

Rather than sticking with the same lineup and expecting different results, Bluder adapted to her team’s strengths. She inserted now-injured guard Molly Davis into the starting lineup and shifted sophomore forward Hannah Stuelke to the five. Iowa decided to lean into its strength as an up-tempo offense. The change led to the desired result, but it wasn’t an easy transition for the 6-foot-2 Stuelke.

“Hannah had to adjust from something she wanted to be, which is the power forward, to something we needed her to be, and that was the center,” Bluder said. “There were a few growing pains in that, but she’s obviously adapted very, very well to that and now is embracing it.”

The Hawkeyes lead the nation in scoring (91.4 points per game) and 3-pointers per game (11) and have parlayed their line change to their second straight national championship appearance, this time against undefeated South Carolina — the same undefeated team the Hawkeyes beat in last season’s Final Four. Stuelke, who ranks second at Iowa in scoring at 14.1 points per game, has faced numerous bigger and more physical posts. She has enjoyed success and has waged a few losing battles, many of which have helped her improve. Now, in a figurative final exam, Stuelke faces her most difficult test of the season.

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CLEVELAND — As Dawn Staley worked in her office last month, she received a call from C. Vivian Stringer. The Hall of Fame coach was reaching out to congratulate Staley on an undefeated regular season.

They’ve known each other for decades, and Staley’s reverence for Stringer remains strong.

“When you get a call from a legendary coach, it gives you inspiration, it gives you stamina, it gives you what you need in that moment to have the strength to continue on with whatever challenges you’re faced with,” Staley said Saturday. As South Carolina and Iowa meet in Sunday’s national championship, Stringer is a thread connected to both programs.

To Staley, Stringer is a mentor. They grew close after Stringer tried to recruit Staley to Iowa in the 1980s. Staley chose Virginia, but their bond has been tight, becoming stronger still when Stringer coached Staley on the 2004 U.S. Olympic basketball team. In 2018, Staley described her as “a powerful voice in our game, our profession, and never more than when you reach back to those who aspire to continue your legacy of growing our game.”

To Iowa and coach Lisa Bluder, Stringer is a foundational figure, integral in building the base that Caitlin Clark now stands (or rather, shoots) on. Bluder’s admiration for Stringer, like Staley’s, is palpable. They’ve remained in touch through the years with Bluder valuing her opinion and appreciating Stringer’s work establishing the program.

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It’s become tradition over the past few summers for South Carolina’s women’s basketball players to familiarize themselves with the upper deck of Colonial Life Arena. One Friday morning during the offseason, the Gamecocks director of women’s basketball performance gave players a challenge: Working as a group, snake through their stadium’s upper bowl, moving through every seat, aisle and crevice while carrying a rope. Don’t let the rope touch the ground, and don’t lose contact with it. Otherwise, a time penalty is assessed. In addition to carrying the rope, carry these kettlebells, chains and medicine balls.

Sound difficult? They must complete the task in 30 minutes.

The challenge is part of a series of workouts that Molly Binetti, the strength coach, has dubbed Final Four Fridays, which runs every Friday for around 12 weeks leading up to South Carolina’s first official practice. “It’s whatever crazy thing Molly can come up with,” associate head coach Lisa Boyer said. It was designed to prepare South Carolina for this weekend.

The morning workouts are grueling, involving obstacles on South Carolina’s campus and Columbia. None seem as daunting as the rope challenge, which this season’s team had to redo after failing the first time. “That’s my least favorite,” guard Raven Johnson said.

The Gamecocks laid the foundation for their 37-0 record this summer.

After losing all five starters from last season’s squad, South Carolina needed to rely on a roster full of newcomers. Conditioning was a focus in the offseason more than ever, Binetti said. “Every single person needed more,” she said.

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A lot was written and said about Iowa avenging its loss to LSU in the Elite Eight. South Carolina now has a chance to enact its own revenge on the Hawkeyes in Sunday’s national championship. I’m picking South Carolina, though, not because of the revenge factor but because of the difficulty involved in preparing for the Gamecocks and stopping them. Because of their depth, any player (or two, or three players) can pop on any given night. It makes the Gamecocks especially hard to strategize against. Iowa star Caitlin Clark has created a frenzy all season and has been the biggest story in the sport. But South Carolina will etch its name among the very best teams in college basketball history with a title.

South Carolina 78, Iowa 72

CLEVELAND —Sometime in the next few days, if South Carolina beats Iowa on Sunday afternoon for the national championship, Dawn Staley’s phone will almost certainly ping with a text from her former grassroots coach.

Mike Flynn thinks he has the perfect message to send his former point guard.

He wants Staley to be ready for the ultimate Philly celebration should she cut down the nets in Cleveland.

More specifically: He wants her to get a Mummers costume ready.

“She’s a Philly girl. She hasn’t given it up,” Flynn said. “She’s an icon of the city.”

In the nearly 16 years since Staley took over South Carolina’s women’s basketball team in May 2008 — raising the program from consistent mediocrity to the sport’s gold standard at the moment — Staley has become a lot of things to a lot of people. Leader. Advocate. Winner. Two-time national champion.

Among her favorite titles, though?

Philadelphian.

Born in 1970, Staley was raised in the Raymond Rosen Projects in North Philly — a place that helped shape her as a woman, a player and now arguably the top coach in her profession. She roots hard for the Philadelphia Eagles and even once coached a game in her hometown team’s jersey. She also once repped a Yolanda Laney jersey from Laney’s Cheyney State days on the sidelines in a nod to Laney and legendary coach C. Vivian Stringer.

So when South Carolina takes the floor against Iowa and superstar Caitlin Clark on Sunday afternoon at Rocket Mortgage Arena, it will come as no surprise that some 400 miles east, the City of Brotherly Love will be rooting her on.

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CLEVELAND — Raven Johnson was certain she was going to quit basketball. She knew everyone would do what they could to stop her from doing that, but for a time, she just didn’t see a path back. Not from this.

She dreamed about what life would be like as just a student instead of a student-athlete. She has plans to be a lawyer. It’s a tough road. Maybe it’d be better to just focus on school and internships. Maybe she’d be happier. Maybe if she told herself those lies enough, she’d finally be convinced.

From her room back on South Carolina’s campus, quitting didn’t feel like giving up, it felt like the only way she could get over everything that had happened.

The Gamecocks —the No. 1 seed and undefeated — had shockingly lost in last season’s Final Four to Iowa. With a senior class that had lost only eight games total leading up to that national semifinal, Johnson had taken it upon herself to make sure those upperclassmen could end their careers with a win and a national championship. So, when Iowa won and delivered that class its ninth career loss, Johnson felt entirely responsible. She hadn’t done enough to get them the win. She had let everyone down.

“I feel like I lost us that game,” Johnson said. “To this day, I blame myself.”

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IOWA CITY, Iowa — Second-seeded Iowa led top-seed UNLV by 20 points in the 1987 men’s basketball Elite Eight.

The 1970 Iowa men’s basketball team still holds the Big Ten record for points per game (102.3) and led Jacksonville by one point with seconds remaining in their Sweet 16 matchup. Ronnie Lester was the best player in the 1980 Final Four, and the Hawkeyes point guard proved it in his first 10 minutes against Louisville.

Ronnie Harmon was an All-American running back entering the 1986 Rose Bowl against UCLA, and No. 3 Iowa still had a shot at the national title. The unbeaten Hawkeyes held a four-point lead on Michigan State after a punt with less than 10 minutes remaining in the 2015 Big Ten football title game.

With 11 seconds left in the 1993 Final Four, Iowa’s women’s basketball team had possession of the ball down one to Ohio State in overtime. Megan Gustafson was the consensus national player of the year in 2019 approaching the Elite Eight against Baylor.

In college athletics’ three highest-profile sports, Iowa’s upper-level history is one of heartbreak.

UNLV rallied for a three-point win. Pembrook Burrows III’s tip-in forged a 104-103 loss. Lester injured his knee after connecting on every shot attempt. Harmon fumbled four times and dropped an easy touchdown pass. Michigan State scored a touchdown with 27 seconds left on a 22-play drive. Laurie Aaron’s slip in the lane with three seconds left doomed the 1993 women. A Baylor blowout.

Every mention in Iowa elicits a wince from people who remember those moments. To this day, those games are discussed with “what-if” components. What if Lester were healthy? What if Spartans running back LJ Scott didn’t stretch for the extra foot across the goal line? What if Harmon didn’t … this goes on and on.

That type of history weighs on a fan base and can topple teams approaching the mountaintop. That even goes for Iowa’s current women’s basketball squad. The Hawkeyes reached the 2023 NCAA title game only to lose 102-85 to LSU. Controversial officiating decisions and postgame taunts combined with season-long hype applied enough pressure on the Hawkeyes to fold at any point this season, and especially in the NCAA Tournament. Instead, they turned pressure into production.

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Caitlin Clark will forgo a potential fifth year at Iowa and turn professional following her senior season.

A question that remains is what Clark’s decision means for her financially. In the new college basketball landscape, where athletes are allowed to profit off their name, image and likeness, Clark doesn’t have to go pro to make money. She isn’t part of Iowa’s collective, so she’s not taking money from the school’s boosters. But she’s already earning off her endorsements with major brands, and she’ll have additional opportunities to capitalize once she becomes a professional.

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The calm before the storm.