South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley has often spoken about her penchant for making sure the Lady Gamecocks schedule HBCUs. In recent media availability, she spoke about it in full after answering a question about playing other competitive out-of-conference foes in comments obtained by WACH's Jared Parker.
“Scheduling is hard. People don't wanna play us. I mean, even having lost what we lost, I mean, it's really, really a hard thing. So, instead of, the big competitive games. We've added some HBCUs. Just to lift up every aspect of our sport. Not every team will go and play an HBCU on their home court. And we feel like, you know, great game, great competition, great coaching, and if we can, if we can, if we can lift, um, because we play the game and give some notoriety to the HBCUs, then we'll do that. And I hope the committee takes that into consideration.”
The Lady Gamecocks are playing two HBCUs this year, traveling to one. On December 7th, North Carolina Central will travel to pay South Carolina. Then, on January 18th, South Carolina will travel up to play Coppin State University. In the 2023-2024 season, Coppin State hosted LSU in a game that was a homecoming for Angel Reese.
Coppin State played South Carolina last season, reaching out to Staley and her team to schedule the pivotal out-of-conference matchup. Per a November 2024 report from journalist Alan Cole, South Carolina and Coppin worked to make the matchup happen.
“Dawn says Coppin State ‘moved some things around' to play South Carolina, and they’ll return the favor with a trip to Baltimore next year.”
Coppin State had a good season in the 2024-2025 season. After losing to South Carolina 92-60, they finished the year with a 19-15 record and an 8-6 conference record in the MEAC. After losing to Norfolk State in the MEAC Tournament, they qualified for the WNIT, beating Colgate 58-48, but lost to Cleveland State 72-70.
