USC buys NCAA title center court circle
COLUMBIA — South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley has a new challenge.
She wants to see how many more championships the Gamecocks can win, so they can run out of room to display pieces of the court that the school has purchased.
“It forces us to win some more so we can see how many we can not fit in the arena,” Staley told The Greenville News on Wednesday.
Staley is referring to the center court circle from the 2024 Final Four that the school decided to purchase after winning the 2024 national championship against Iowa at Rocket Mortgate FieldHouse in Cleveland.
South Carolina senior women’s administrator Maria Hickman told Sportico that the contract has yet to be signed with Connor Sports but the athletic department intends on going through with the purchase. The plan is to also purchase additional panels.
The athletic department purchased pieces of the floor for the program’s first national title in 2017 and again in 2022. Hickman told The State that the logo was about $60,000 in 2022 and this year, it will cost closer to $86,000. The additional panels will be available to buy in partnership with Artsman, The State reported. A portion of the proceeds will go to the women’s basketball team.
And now when fans step into Colonial Life Arena, they’ll get to see another piece of history for the Gamecocks.
“It’s a tradition but it also looks great around the arena,” Staley said. “Any time that you can commemorate winning a national championship through things that you purchase like a center court, its awesome tradition that our athletic department has taken on.”
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin