Dawn Staley has made her mark as one of the best basketball coaches on the planet. Currently, she’s looking to guide the South Carolina women’s basketball team to its second straight national championship, and third overall.
So it shouldn’t be a surprise that her name would come up for open jobs. On Thursday, though, she was asked if she would be interested in jumping to the men’s game, specifically at Temple, where she previously coached the women.
Her answer was hardly ambiguous: “I don’t want to coach in the men’s game,” she said.
The Pennsylvania native coached the Owls women’s basketball team from 2000-2008, leading the team to a 172-80 record, six NCAA Tournament appearances and four Atlantic 10 tournament titles.
Staley has been head coach at South Carolina for the last 15 seasons, where she has compiled a 402-105 record, won two national championships, seven SEC regular-season championships and seven SEC tournament championships.
Her current team is seeking its second straight national championship and is riding a 42-game winning streak that dates back to last season’s conference tournament. The team is set to compete in the Final Four against Caitlin Clark and Iowa on Friday.
Whether Staley is interested in coaching the Temple men’s team is moot, as the school has hired Penn State assistant coach Adam Fisher. Under Micah Shrewsberry, Fisher helped to lead Penn State to 23 wins and the second round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament. Shrewsberry left Penn State to take the head coach position at Notre Dame.
Temple was 14-17 this season and last reached the NCAA Tournament in 2018.
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