Even with the loss in the Final Four, the decorated class that dominated most of the past two seasons is probably all moving on.
DALLAS — When asked recently whether Aliyah Boston deserves a statue outside of Colonial Life Arena, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley credited not only the legacy the 2021-22 national player of the year will leave in Columbia but also that of Boston’s fellow seniors.
“I think this entire class deserves to be just lifted up,” Staley said ahead of the NCAA tournament. “They’re deserving of something, of us really celebrating them and what they have meant to our program, to our university, to the city of Columbia and the state of South Carolina.”
Fresh off a stunning upset in the national semifinal to No. 2 seed Iowa, Staley’s attention will start to shift to the future of what South Carolina women’s basketball will look like, not just likely post-Boston but also without the decorated senior class that led the Gamecocks to three consecutive Final Four appearances.
“When that buzzer went off, it was kind of just an end of an era, it feels like,” Boston said. “We had a special group.”
In the offseason, South Carolina could lose all five starters — Boston, Zia Cooke, Brea Beal, Victaria Saxton and Kierra Fletcher — as well as reserves Laeticia Amihere and Olivia Thompson. Fletcher, a graduate transfer from Georgia Tech, and Saxton, a fifth-year senior for the Gamecocks, are both out of eligibility, while Boston, Cooke, Beal and Amihere might forgo using their COVID-19 “freebie” year and turn their sights to playing professionally.
While Boston has long been the presumptive No. 1 overall WNBA pick, she told reporters after South Carolina’s Final Four loss that she hasn’t decided whether she will return for a fifth year, although Staley added that if Boston seeks her advice, she’d tell her to go pro.
Boston, Cooke, Beal, Amihere and Thompson all arrived in Columbia as part of a highly touted recruiting class in 2019, since called “The Freshies,” with Boston, Cooke and Beal serving as four-year starters. Since then, they’ve lived up to the hype and more, finishing their careers 40-1 at home at Colonial Life Arena and going 129-9 overall. More than their on-court accolades, though, Staley has repeatedly commended the group’s maturity and quality as teammates and people.
Assuming Boston and the others are gone, with so much roster turnover — and a standard of Final Fours and championships in Columbia more firmly in place now than ever — what will the immediate future hold for South Carolina?
“The returners, they’ve got to get us back here,” Staley said. “This is fun to come to the Final Four as a participant. It’s fun. I don’t like coming other than coming as a participant, and I didn’t really have to think about that for three years. So let’s hope we can get back here. I hope the loss, they feel it deeply, and they’ll work hard to get back here.”
Staley has seven players from this season’s roster expected to return: Johnson, Kamilla Cardoso, Bree Hall and Sania Feagin, as well as freshmen Ashlyn Watkins and Talaysia Cooper and early enrollee Chloe Kitts. Tessa Johnson, Sahyna Jah and Milaysia Fulwiley will join in the fall as incoming freshmen. And that doesn’t take into account any additions or departures via the transfer portal.
