PHOENIX — In advance of Sunday’s national championship game, South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley was highly complimentary of UCLA head coach Cori Close. Staley said she knew what it was like to win that first title after so many years on the trail, and she wanted Close to have that experience — just not at her expense.
“It’s special,” Staley said. “You’re playing on the last day of college women’s basketball, and it’s a great honor and a great feat, whether you win or lose,” Staley said. “But you also are measuring where your program can continue to go. For us in 2017 we won it, but it’s really cool, and I’m genuinely happy for Cori and UCLA.”
After an emotional win over unbeaten Connecticut on Friday, marked by a confrontation with UConn’s head coach Geno Auriemma at the postgame handshake line, there was always the possibility of a letdown against the methodical Bruins. Staley said there was no after-effect, but she couldn’t have seen the result coming — a 79-51 drubbing by UCLA in the championship game.
In an odd way, UCLA winning its first NCAA women’s basketball championship by upsetting South Carolina — like South Carolina upsetting defending champion UConn — is good for the women’s game. The name of the game is growth, a mantra that was repeated throughout the week, especially by Close and Staley.
Throughout Final Four week, the two coaches talked about the good of the game and the respect they had for each other. After Friday’s ugly incident between Staley and Auriemma, the expression of mutual respect was refreshing — and necessary.
“I’m always happy for people who worked hard in this game, who are really quality people,” Staley said. “I want good things to happen for them, and Cori is one of those people who really works at making our game better — not just UCLA, but our entire game. She’s always speaking out and uplifting our game in so many areas. It’s hard to continue to do that while maintaining the job that you have to do every day. But she finds the time.
“Although we didn’t win, I could swallow it, because we lost to a really good human being and a good team that represents women’s basketball.”
South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley on UCLA and Cori Close winning the national championship: “I’m always happy for people who worked hard in this game, who are really quality people.”
Christian Petersen/Getty Images
What makes the women’s tournament, indeed the women’s game, different — frankly more refreshing — has nothing to do with talent or skill level. While the men are entitled, the women are on a mission. The mission is to grow the game — in a sense, to prove themselves, prove their worth, prove that the money spent by athletic departments is justified.
In this respect, Staley, 55, and Close, 54, are sisters in arms. They were born at the beginning of a change that would make women athletes visible: When Title IX legislation was passed in 1972, Close was a 1-year-old toddler in Milpitas, California, and Staley was a 2-year-old in North Philadelphia.
The legislation would have a seismic impact on girls’ participation in sports and would pave a highway that led to Close and Staley coaching against each other Sunday for the national championship.
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On Saturday, a reporter prefaced a question to Close by saying how good it was to see two women coaches competing for the national championship.
“You said it, not me,” Close quipped.
This is not a conversation you hear in men’s competition, because men coaching against men —usually white men — is the norm. In the world of Power Four college basketball, there are no women head coaches leading a men’s basketball program. There are several men coaching women’s Power Four programs.
“I think both Dawn and I feel a sense of pride that we are able to continue to represent women that can coach at the highest levels to promote our game,” Close said. “I think both Dawn and I really see this as something bigger than ourselves. That’s an honor to be a part of that. And we want part of the legacy. We want to have really made an impact on growing the game for a long time to come, and for it to inspire that women can stay in this game.”
UCLA head coach Cori Close on two women coaching in the national championship: “I think both Dawn and I really see this as something bigger than ourselves. That’s an honor to be a part of that.”
The greatest distinction between the men’s tournament and the women’s tournament is a sense of mission.
At the women’s tournament, the mission is everywhere. The coaches talk about it, the players absorb it. At last year’s Final Four, and again this year, Close went to great lengths to talk about the Bruins women’s championship pedigree: The UCLA women’s basketball team was established in 1974 and played under the umbrella of the AIAW (Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women), winning the AIAW championship in 1978.
Even the players have that sense of mission about promoting the game.
“I’ve always been really vocal about women’s sports, mental health, being an advocate for that,” UCLA center Lauren Betts said before Sunday’s game. “So, I think every time I step out on the floor, I remember that it’s not just about me. And every time that I speak to media, I remember that it’s not about me. I just continue to try to grow the game in any way that I can.”
I asked Betts what she thought the next mountain to climb would be for the women’s game.
“Well, a huge one was just climbed recently, so that’s been really big,” she said, referring to the recent collective bargaining agreement between the WNBA and the WNBA Players Association. Under the agreement, the salary cap jumps from $1.5 million to $7 million, the average salary jumps from $120,000 to $600,000, and the minimum salary jumps from $66,000 to $300,000.
“I’m really grateful for all the players that made those commitments and the sacrifices for people like me who are entering the W next year,” Betts said. “So, I mean, that was huge, and I don’t take that for granted. I’m just very, very grateful for all the hard work that went into that.”
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The next frontier for the women is having their value recognized. Title IX opened the door for opportunity for women. Now name, image and likeness (NIL) money has been a game-changer for college athletes, but women still lag behind the men.
According to On3’s NIL evaluations, the top 44 NIL earners in collegiate athletics are men. LSU guard Flau’jae Johnson ranks 45th, with an estimated value of $1.5 million. There is one other female student athlete in the top 100.
Why the disparity? It’s certainly not because of ability. Johnson is skilled. She is a four-year starter whose 18.6 points per game was at the top end of average in the nation.
Johnson is popular: She has 2 million followers on Instagram, 1.6 million followers on TikTok. (One of my students pointed out that there isn’t a single athlete inside the top 45 who comes within 1 million Instagram followers of Johnson’s total followers. University of Texas quarterback Arch Manning, who has the nation’s highest NIL evaluation at $5.4 million, has 1.6 million fewer Instagram followers and 1.5 million fewer TikTok followers than Johnson.)
The only conclusion to draw is that female athletes, even at Power Four institutions, are underexposed and given fewer opportunities to earn NIL income. According to a study conducted by the University of Cincinnati, men’s college basketball players competing for high-major schools earned an average of $171,272 during the 2024-25 season, compared to just $16,222 for women.
Challenges abound. Before Staley left the podium after Sunday’s loss, I asked her what she thought the next mountain would be for the women’s game to climb.
The sport has to begin paying its own way now.
“There are talks of the transfer portal, just getting hold of the free agency part of our game,” she said. “We got [NCAA tournament] units now; we’d like to see us increase those, because that’s where the value is. The value of our sport is going to be how much we could pour back into our budgets, how much we can actually be looked at as a sport that is revenue producing.”
The women’s game continues to grow and prosper, because of the players of course, but also because of flag bearers like Staley and Close. Staley will be the first to concede that Sunday wasn’t a great day for South Carolina, but it was a good day for woman’s basketball.
In the grand scheme, that’s all that matters.
William C. Rhoden is a columnist for Andscape and the author of Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. He directs the Rhoden Fellows, a training program for aspiring journalists from HBCUs.
