GREENVILLE, SC. () — South Carolina Women’s Basketball defeated Texas 64-45 on March 9 to secure its ninth SEC championship in the last 11 seasons.

After the game, Sports Director Joey Lamar spoke with Gamecocks’ legendary head coach Dawn Staley.

Joey Lamar: “Coach, this game was a revenge game, like you said, because you want to get back at Texas. But now the shift focuses on the NCAA tournament. Do you think this team has done enough to be the number one seed or the number one seed for the big dance?

Dawn Staley: “Yes. I mean, I don’t think there’s a question about the number one seed. There’s probably a question about the number one overall. I don’t know if we’ll be there. But if you blindly put our winning percentage, our strength, what we’ve worked with, you know, we would be one that will look better than everybody else’s.

JL: “Coach, now I always ask you a basketball question, Then I ask you one off question. Right now, you are kind of unofficially like the spokesperson for women’s basketball, and not only you, but your team as well. Is that pressure on you? And I know you can handle that pressure, but what about your team who are 17, 18, 19 years old, 20 years old?”

DS: “You know, I mean, I think our success puts us in the spotlight a little bit more than other programs and other coaches. I think we’re really respectful of the game we really like it. I love women’s basketball. I love the fact that we get to represent it. We want to do it in a way, so our game continues to grow.”

Staley said that a player’s representation is deeper than a single individual.

“You know, young people are our young people. They represent their families. So, I think when we put that in perspective, you can’t go wrong. They’re always going to do the right thing when they know their family’s involved in it and they don’t want to do anything that would embarrass them.”