CLEVELAND — This was all supposed to happen last year. The confetti bombs, the trophy lifts, the emotional finale to an unscathed season.
A year ago, South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley took an early exit off the Final Four stage, sent Aliyah Boston’s senior class to the WNBA and contemplated how to coach a young team that wouldn’t make her life as easy.
It was a tough season of adjustment and 12 hours before the national title game, she said it didn’t feel as if her team was entering the game undefeated again. She had seen lax preparation early in the season and bad basketball at points over the past couple of months.