Fans show support as Dawn Staley becomes No. 1 coach with the most WNBA draft picks

Dawn Staley has been the head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks since 2008. In that time, she has had the opportunity to coach many players who went on to have professional basketball careers in the WNBA.

In the 2025 WNBA draft, three South Carolina players were selected. Te-Hina PaoPao was selected by the Atlanta Dream, Bree Hall by the Indiana Fever and Sania Feagin by the Los Angeles Sparks. All three were picked in the second round.

This added to an impressive run of success for Staley’s players since the start of the 2020s. Since 2020, Dawn Staley has had the most WNBA draft picks with 12. A graphic of her draft success was posted on Instagram by the South Carolina women’s basketball account on Friday.

Shortly after the graphic was posted, fans reacted in the comments, celebrating Staley’s achievements.

“I thought she didn’t develop. Yeah, ok..” one fan wrote.

“Soon to be 11 when Bree & LA get that call,” one fan commented.

“Icon living,” one fan added.

Fans continued to react to the post in the comments.

“Love it,” one fan wrote.

“Goat,” one fan commented.

“Mhmm!” one fan added.

Dawn Staley should have a few players in the mix to be drafted in the coming seasons

Head coach Dawn Staley has been extremely successful in helping her players improve and become WNBA draft picks in recent years. Te-Hina PaoPao, Bree Hall, and Sania Feagin are the most recent examples, but she has been consistent over the years. Heading into next season, she has a few players who could be candidates to be drafted.

The two most obvious candidates to be drafted from the Gamecocks in the 2026 WNBA draft are Ta’Niya Latson and Chloe Kitts. Both players are entering their senior seasons and have established themselves as strong players throughout their college careers.

Florida State transfer Ta’Niya Latson will be new to South Carolina next season after three seasons with the Seminoles. She is one of the most effective scorers in college basketball, averaging 25.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 2.2 steals per game.

Conversely, Chloe Kitts has been a member of the Gamecocks for her entire college career. She has progressed each season, having her best year in 2025. She averaged 10.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.9 assists for Dawn Staley’s squad this past season. Both players should be in the mix to be drafted next year.

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Alexander O’Reilly is a journalist at Sportskeeda from Kingston, Ontario with over seven years in the field at companies including SenShot, RVBlogger, Monarch Media, WordAgents, GSeC LLC, and IGC.

His favorite college team is Duke, and his favorite sporting memory was Duke winning March Madness in 2010. JJ Redick was Alex’s favorite college player when he was young but more recently, Caleb Williams gets the nod. As the Chicago Bears are Alex’s favorite NFL team, this was a perfect match.

Alex’s proudest moment came when he was interviewed by a radio station in Ottawa on his opinion on recent moves by the Ottawa Senators, which gave him a confidence boost and the knowledge that he could succeed as a writer.

Aside from sports, Alex likes to spend his time playing games. He is also very passionate about running and strives to improve at the half and full marathon distances.

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