Dawn Staley got into coaching so that she could win a national championship.

Staley played collegiately at Virginia, twice winning Naismith College Player of the Year. But one thing was missing from her collegiate resume: a national championship.

“I didn’t win a national championship in college,” Staley said on an episode of “Sue’s Places,” which airs on ESPN+. “We went to the Final Four three times, got to the final game once but we didn’t make it count. So I got into coaching to win a national championship.”

At South Carolina, Staley has won two national championships, with the team’s latest coming in 2022. But it wasn’t easy getting to the point she is now.

“This is my 24th year coaching, the first eight were at Temple. We went to the tournament a few times, we would get to the first or the second round and then that was it. And then I’m like ‘I gotta get to a place in which we can win a national championship.’ And then South Carolina came up.”

The Gamecocks are on track to have a great postseason run once again, as the team is currently undefeated. Already, they’ve locked up the SEC regular season championship for the eighth time in the last 11 years. And a win over Alabama on Thursday marked Staley’s 600th win as a coach.

It’s been a better season than Staley had imagined, after having to replace all five of her starters from last year. And on Sunday during College GameDay, she said as much.

“Considering what it looked like in June, like, early retirement – I was considering it,” she said, insisting that she wasn’t kidding. “We’ve been fortunate that we’ve learned lessons through winning. We don’t want to take a loss and learn a lesson.”