Dawn Staley Pushes Back on Reporter’s Question: ‘We Don’t Like To Bring That Up’
When a reporter asked South Carolina women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley about one of their injured team members, she quickly pushed back on the question. “We don’t like to bring that up,” she admitted, before sharing more details about the long-missing Gamecocks player.
Gamecocks forward Ashlyn Watkins tore her ACL and has been out of the season since January. A reporter asked Staley on April 5 to reflect on what it’s been like without Watkins and what she predicts will happen with the player next season.
“We actually don’t even like talking about Ashlyn, one, because we’re not a program that when we sustain a loss like that, that we’re not hung up on that,” Staley pushed back.
Then she did provide a few more details about Watkins’ recovery progress.
“But Ash’s process has been going smoothly,” Staley said. “Obviously she’s off crutches, she’s been off crutches for a while. I think we’ve missed her at times but we don’t like to bring that up because there’s nothing that we can do about it.”
She went on to say that their accomplishments, especially without Watkins, are impressive.
“And the fact that we’re here, the fact we’re here without her is quite an incredible feat that is probably not talked about a whole lot because we don’t talk about it a whole lot,” she said. “But to get her back, her athleticism, her shot-blocking ability, her ability to defend on the perimeter and inside, her ability to get to the basket and create her own shot shot…”
Staley predicted that Watkins will be practicing with them again soon.
“So her journey back will probably get her back into a real flow — and her doctors might cringe when I say this — is probably midsummer, late summer for us,” she said. “Not for them, for us where she can actually do some things that we can actually put our hands on and work with her.”
