It's always a challenge for defending champions to find new motivation in their quest for a second successive title. The situation isn't any different for Dawn Staley's 2025 No. 1 South Carolina side.
Staley's Gamecocks captured the 2022 National title over Paige Bueckers and UConn before falling to the Caitlin Clark-led Iowa buzzsaw a year later. The former Hawkeye scored 41 points to oust a then-undefeated South Carolina side in the Final Four.
South Carolina got over the hump a year later, cruising past North Carolina State in the Final Four before besting Clark in the title game to win the 2024 National Championship.
Senior guard Raven Johnson, who's been with Staley for both tournament wins and their loss to Iowa, admitted South Carolina used the motivation from 2023's loss to help fuel their 2024 title.
"Going off from last season, the Final Four game, after we lost - the whole season, I feel like everybody was riding our coattails, just hyping us up," Johnson said before the 2023-24 campaign. "As soon as we lost, we got all these hate comments. .... I said this was a revenge season, and I got something for everybody, every team that comes up."
"So I think that was the best thing that ever happened to me, and God does things for a reason. So maybe I needed that. But I'll say this team, we're coming for a lot. So it's definitely revenge season."
Johnson fulfilled the prophecy by playing outstanding defense on Clark in the 2024 NCAA Championship game. She's emerged as one of the best stoppers in the country, underscored by her 2025 SEC All-Defensive Team selection.
Johnson started 35 games each of the last two seasons and hopes to capture a third NCAA title this season. Her Gamecocks will have to play better after struggling against No. 9 Indiana in the second round.
South Carolina trailed 26-25 at halftime before pulling away to win 64-53. Junior forward Chloe Kitts, held scoreless in the first half, scored 10 after the break to lead the charge.
“We were all just missing our easy lay-ups, and there wasn’t really flow in the game the first two quarters," Kitts said postgame. “Then the second half, we turned it around.”
Staley, already among the top 90 most winning coaches in women's basketball at the age of just 54, shouldn't need too much help in finding ways to motivate her team. The South Carolina coach is already a three-time NCAA tournament champion and a four-time Naismith Coach of the Year.
South Carolina will take on No. 4 Maryland in Friday afternoon's Sweet 16 matchup in the school's next stop along the 2025 title yellow-brick road.
