Las Vegas Aces WNBA superstar and ex-South Carolina forward A'ja Wilson has praised her former program as coach Dawn Staley's team heads into the Final Four unbeaten. South Carolina is the team to beat in the , after putting together a 36-0 season, with a date in the Final Four against NC State scheduled for Friday night. The winner of Friday's Final Four clash will go on to contest a national championship game against last year's finalists, Iowa, or UConn at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio, this weekend. , 27, was the 2018 first overall pick in the WNBA Draft out of South Carolina, and she said the current Gamecocks group is "the most free, but bought-in team coach has ever had" heading into Friday's game. "I think everyone is playing at their best always, and they're just playing them," Wilson added. "They're not too into coach Staley's schemes but they're listening and they're disciplined - but they also know how to deviate and things like that but still keep the gameplan. "I have never seen her coach something like that. I don't think any of the teams I was on was like that so it's pretty cool kinda to see them kinda really bought in." Staley - regardless of Friday and potentially Sunday's game - has been voted The Associated Press women’s college
basketball Coach of the Year for the second time. “I don’t coach to win awards, I really don’t,” Staley said. “I’m very, very satisfied with just being there for my players. ... I’m forever indebted to basketball for what it’s given to me.” Staley added: "We had our fair share of rocky in the beginning and then as we continued throughout the season, the road got a little smoother and then obviously you’re going to face some adversity throughout the season, and this team being undefeated really is a shocker to me." The NCAA Tournament has drawn a lot of eyes too and Staley believes the finances surrounding the game should follow suit. “It’s been a buildup,” Staley said. “Our game has built up because we’ve been held back, quite frankly. We’ve been held back a very, very long time to now I think the fact that our TV deal was up. "And I think
ESPN has done a great
Job at broadcasting, giving us access to — a lot of games came on television this year that I probably watched the most out of any year this particular year. There’s the talent. There’s the talent. There’s the experienced talent that people want to see. There’s a younger generation talent that people want to see. And it’s in high demand. And there’s no other place to go besides broadcast them.”