Dawn Staley helped guide South Carolina to No. 1 and has now earned coach of the year honors from The Associated Press for the first time.
The veteran Gamecocks coach received 20 votes from the national media panel that selects the Top 25 poll each week. “It’s a great feeling.
It’s cliche as I represent the best team in the country and our coaching staff and our support staff. Our trainers and everybody.
It’s great,” she said. “It’s something that we haven’t been able to celebrate, but we will celebrate it together at a later time.” Northwestern coach Joe McKeown was second with five votes in balloting released Monday.