COLUMBIA, S.C. -- There's always noise on game days. On a windy Sunday afternoon in January outside Colonial Life Arena, traffic snarls in all directions, fans dressed in garnet and black form long lines, and laughter seems ever present.

Inside, closer to tipoff, 18,000 Gamecock faithful -- known as the G-Hive -- bring nonstop energy, treating game day like a cross between a holiday party and a concert for their favorite band.

Welcome to South Carolina women's basketball.

For the opponent, the atmosphere -- not to mention the Gamecocks -- can be overwhelming. On this day, Oklahoma, one of eight ranked teams in the SEC, can't find any answers. The Sooners, used to running their opponents into the ground with their fast pace, lose by 41 points. Gamecocks sophomore MiLaysia Fulwiley and freshman Joyce Edwards make highlight reel plays; five SC players score in double figures.

It was the 18th win of the season for South Carolina, which hosts UConn on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, ABC). After a 38-0 national championship season last year, the Gamecocks are looking to run it back in 2025 -- and to cement their reputation as one of the top teams in all of college sports.

"They're who all of us are looking at in terms of being able to build the depth, the culture they have, the crowd," Oklahoma coach Jennie Baranczyk said. "This is, right now, the example in women's basketball."

But when coach Dawn Staley took over the Gamecocks in 2008, they had been to the NCAA tournament just twice in the previous 17 seasons. After finishing 10-18 and 11th in the SEC in Staley's first season, the Gamecocks were 29-5 and league champions -- with a trip to the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 -- in her sixth.

Early on in Columbia, Staley built the program's talent with regional recruits and its attendance with almost tireless accessibility. She chatted with fans, in person and on social media, stopped in restaurants for lunch and gave away game tickets, becoming the approachable face of her team, the university and the city of Columbia.

What came next was even harder: maintaining it. Staley has done that, too. From 2014-15 through 2023-24, the Gamecocks went 319-35 overall and 147-13 in the SEC. They won three NCAA titles, made another three Final Four appearances, won eight SEC regular-season and tournament titles, led Division I in attendance every year and produced two WNBA No. 1 draft picks in A'ja Wilson and Aliyah Boston.

South Carolina's dominance has changed not only the program and the SEC, but the balance of power in women's college basketball. And the No. 4 Gamecocks, 23-2 overall and 11-1 in the SEC, are once again a national championship contender. UCLA and Texas, which are also in the mix for No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament, are the only teams to beat South Carolina this season.

"I just came here wanting to win, wanting to be a sponge to it all," said Wilson, a three-time WNBA MVP whose South Carolina career from 2014 to 2018 helped launch the decade of dominance. "To see the legacy and longevity of this program, where it's going ... that's what we were built on, that's our culture."

Here are some of the milestones, pivotal moments, triumphs and heartbreaks over the past 10 seasons that helped South Carolina become the dynasty of women's college basketball.

April 16, 2014: A'ja Wilson announces she is staying home

A statue of Wilson was unveiled outside Colonial Life Arena in 2021, and her No. 22 jersey was retired there earlier this month. She's an NCAA champion with two WNBA titles and two Olympic gold medals. No player has had more impact on the program -- all thanks to two weekly phone calls that helped Staley land Wilson, the No. 1 recruit in the country in 2014.

Wilson grew up in greater Columbia and attended Gamecock basketball camps. Her father, Roscoe Wilson, was a former basketball player who had trained her and brought her to Staley's attention. As Wilson blossomed into a superstar recruit every program wanted, Staley realized someone else held the key to getting her to be a Gamecock.

"In every process, you have to find that person who really knows what's going [on] inside the recruit's mind. And it was her mom, Eva, for A'ja," Staley told ESPN. "I usually try to talk to recruits once a week. And then we added her mom once a week."

"Few have impacted women's basketball quite like Dawn Staley." @GamecockWBB's Dawn Staley is a legend in the game and a pioneer, whose legacy will have a lasting impact pic.twitter.com/zr61LvSmDj

SEC Network (@SECNetwork) February 13, 2025

Eva Wilson told Staley that her daughter was dealing with dyslexia, something A'ja would open up about near the end of her college career to help inspire others. Staley told Eva every resource would be available to Wilson, and she would be there for her, too.

But as the time came for Wilson to publicly announce her college choice, Staley and her staff weren't sure of her decision.

"We found out like eight minutes before she was going on TV to say it," South Carolina associate head coach Lisa Boyer told ESPN. "She was heavily recruited. We were dealing with UConn, with North Carolina, with Tennessee at that point."

Tennessee coaching legend Pat Summitt had stepped down in 2012 because of early onset Alzheimer's. North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell missed the 2013-14 season battling cancer, while then-assistant Andrew Calder guided the Tar Heels to the Elite Eight, beating South Carolina in the Sweet 16. Wilson made her decision less than a month later.

"I don't know what would have happened if Pat and Coach Hatchell hadn't been sick then, if that might have changed anything," Boyer said. "But we did know how strong a connection Dawn had formed with A'ja and her family."

Wilson has had the most impact on the program, but she wasn't the first foundational recruit for Staley. That was guard Tiffany Mitchell of Charlotte, North Carolina, who picked the Gamecocks in 2012.

"Tiffany committed to me and our program before it was popular," Staley said. "She was one of the top players in the country and chose us."

Mitchell was the spark that lit South Carolina's torch, and getting Wilson ensured the flame wouldn't go out. Her success and popularity opened even more recruiting doors nationwide for South Carolina, while her local roots further endeared the program to fans.

Wilson has said that Staley always understood the right buttons to push and that her mother sensed that, too.

"Eva knew, just from our conversations, what we needed and what A'ja needed, and that it would be the perfect fit," Staley said. "It probably would not have worked out as beautifully if she wasn't from here. Like if she was the No. 1 recruit from the Midwest, or the Northeast or the West Coast or someplace? I don't think we would have this kind of momentum that we've built from the time she walked on campus."

March 29, 2015: Gamecocks reach their first Final Four

The Gamecocks entered 2014-15 knowing there was a huge step to take.

The season before, they won Staley's first SEC regular-season title and then made the Sweet 16. With standouts like Mitchell returning and Wilson joining them as a freshman, excitement around the program had never been higher.

Mitchell, then a junior, realized South Carolina was on the verge of something much bigger than she had dreamed when she chose the Gamecocks.

"I never knew committing would ignite such a change in the program," Mitchell said. "But I trusted Dawn and she trusted me to help change the narrative at South Carolina."

In 2015, the Gamecocks went 15-1 in the SEC, their best record since joining the conference in 1991-92. They won the SEC tournament for the first time, beating Tennessee -- the league's long-time standard-bearer -- in the final.

After cruising through the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, the Gamecocks met North Carolina in the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row. The regional, in Greensboro, North Carolina, was closer to the Tar Heels' campus, but by this point the traveling party with the Gamecocks was enormous.

South Carolina prevailed 67-65. The first Final Four in program history was one win away. But with three minutes to play in the Gamecocks' regional final against Florida State, they trailed 67-65. Someone had to take over.

Mitchell did, with an assist and then seven consecutive points in an 80-74 win that sent South Carolina to the national semifinals in Tampa, Florida. The Gamecocks were the newcomers in a Final Four where the other three teams -- Notre Dame, UConn and Maryland -- all previously had won at least one national championship.

South Carolina lost 66-65 to Notre Dame in the semifinals. Wilson, who came off the bench that season, led South Carolina with 20 points and 9 rebounds.

For Staley, who went to three Final Fours as a player at Virginia but never won a title, was disappointed but resolute after her first trip as a coach.

"I told our team that I hope they take note of how hard it is to get to this point and how much work it took," Staley said after the loss. "We're not far off. We just have to continue and get these experiences. If we ever get to this point again, we can have different results. I want us to have a certain hunger, a certain bad taste in our mouths from being so close to competing for a national championship that it will fuel us."

April 2, 2017: Mission accomplished

Staley knew a key part of the path to the top was staying present and not jumping ahead. She said her 2015-16 team had to learn that the hard way.

"They had a taste of the Final Four. We had a pretty good team coming back, and they just didn't appreciate the process of getting back there," she said. "We were drunk on our success. And although we were good, I could almost feel the team shortchanging the process."

A No. 1 seed in the 2016 NCAA tournament, South Carolina lost in the Sweet 16 to Syracuse. Mitchell -- her college career over -- was despondent in the locker room afterward.

Staley's college career had ended with a national semifinal loss 25 years earlier. She went on to play professionally in the ABL and WNBA for 10 seasons, win three Olympic gold medals, be the United States flag-bearer in the 2004 Athens Games and was now a high-profile coach. But she knew how empty Mitchell felt.

"The big losses drive me because our players hurt," Staley said. "Really hurt. And that hurts me, deeply."

Staley funneled all that emotion into 2016-17. Wilson was a junior. Top transfer Allisha Gray -- who had played for North Carolina against South Carolina twice previously in the NCAA tournament -- joined the Gamecocks. This time, Staley said, she reminded the players to focus on every step: the regular-season title, the SEC tournament crown and each game of the NCAA tournament, which included a too-close-for-comfort 71-68 second-round win over Arizona State.

The regional was across the country in Stockton, California, with Florida State the Elite Eight opponent. The Gamecocks won 71-64, then beat Stanford 62-53 in the semifinals in Dallas.

Still absorbing the fact they had advanced to their first national championship game, Staley and her staff watched, as shocked as the rest of the women's basketball world, as Mississippi State ended UConn's 111-game winning streak in the second semifinal.

South Carolina, which had already defeated the Bulldogs twice that season, did it again in the final. Staley became the second Black head coach -- Carolyn Peck at Purdue in 1999 was the first -- to win the NCAA women's basketball title.

Boyer said the celebration at the Gamecocks' hotel that night went into the wee hours. At about 3 a.m., after most of the well-wishers had left, two coaches remained.

"I just turned to Dawn and said, 'We finally did it. What do we do now?'" Boyer recalled. "And she said, 'We've got to win another one.'"

Feb. 10, 2020: Gamecocks clear the UConn hurdle

Staley had at least one other big ticket to punch: a victory over UConn. The programs' first meeting was in December 2007, the season before Staley took over at South Carolina, and UConn won by 58 points. In Staley's first seven games against the Huskies, South Carolina lost by an average of 21.3 points. The closest the Gamecocks got was an 11-point loss in 2017.

But Staley was committed to keeping the series going.

"People will shy away from playing them, but for me, it was more magnetic to play them," Staley said of the Huskies. "Because they were the standard, and you're always measuring yourself against them.

"It hurt me when we used to lose by 20 points. You change things up -- one year we tried to take the air out of the ball. You have to learn how to beat them."

The Gamecocks' celebrated freshman class of 2019-20, led by Aliyah Boston and nicknamed "The Freshies," finally cracked the UConn code. South Carolina won 70-52 behind 13 points and 12 rebounds from Boston.

South Carolina then won the SEC tournament and was 32-1 and ranked No. 1 when the NCAA announced the 2020 men's and women's basketball tournaments were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In early May, Staley had a milestone birthday: 50. Amid so much uncertainty in the world and an extension of her time as Olympic coach with the Tokyo Games delayed to 2021, Staley said she recommitted to her next big goal: getting the Freshies a national championship.

April 3, 2022: After a crushing ending, the Freshies finish the job

After leading the nation in attendance the previous six seasons, the Gamecocks had to adjust to mostly empty arenas in the 2020-21 season due to COVID-19 restrictions. The 2021 NCAA tournament was played in a bubble in San Antonio.

South Carolina, a No. 1 seed, won its second-round game over Oregon State on March 23. Two days later, Gamecocks assistant coach Jolette Law's mother, who had been battling illness, died in her hometown of Florence, South Carolina.

If Law left the bubble, she wouldn't be able to return for the rest of the tournament.

"It was the hardest, most painful time in my life," Law said. "After we won the SEC tournament, I went to the hospital and saw my mother. We talked, listened to gospel music, she kept saying she was tired. But in your mind, you don't think your mom is going to die."

Law asked Staley not to tell the players, hoping not to distract them.

"But when I didn't show up at dinner, they wanted to know why," Law said. "Those kids wrote letters to me, and they made a video for me. I knew my mom would want me to stay and finish this out with them."

The Gamecocks advanced to the national semifinals against No. 1 seed Stanford. Boston's putback at the buzzer bounced out, and South Carolina lost 66-65. Boston doubled over in tears, her reaction so raw even some Stanford players comforted her while their teammates were celebrating.

"Aliyah, all our kids, were just devastated. And I had to go home and bury my mother," Law said. "But God said, 'If you trust me, if you lean on me, I will give you the strength to be able to do what you need to do.'"

Just as the players helped her deal with her personal loss, Law said she and the staff helped them deal with the game loss. Having overcome her own recent grief, Law had the perspective to help Boston deal with her heartbreak.

"She finally started to get over it that summer," Staley said. "But then she had to relive it, because [the video] kept being plastered all over the place. So then we talked about, 'The only thing to do to get past it would be to come back and win the championship.'"

Boston followed Wilson as a superstar post recruit; they had different personalities, but a similar resolve. Boston spent the next summer improving her diet and strength. With a strong 2022 season, she was on her way to being the National Player of the Year, and South Carolina had lost just one game as it headed into the 2022 SEC tournament.

It lost the SEC final 64-62 to Kentucky on a 3-pointer with 4 seconds left. But that disappointment didn't rattle Staley; she said she thought it made the Gamecocks more determined going into the NCAA tournament.

They faced UConn -- and coach Geno Auriemma, 11-0 in NCAA finals -- for the title.

"There was a lot of talk about Geno being undefeated in national championship games. I was like, 'Well, I am, too. I'm 1-0,'" Staley said, laughing.

That became 2-0 in Minneapolis after a 64-49 victory, the second-fewest points UConn had ever scored in an NCAA tournament game. The fewest (47) had come 30 years earlier.

Boston had 11 points, 16 rebounds and two blocks. The image of her from the 2021 semifinal loss had stayed with her, not as failure but as fuel.

"I don't want anyone to use a photo of me crying ever again," Boston said.

March 31, 2023: A full reset after an imperfect ending

Unlike the 2021-22 season, Staley said in 2023 that she didn't think the Gamecocks needed a loss to refocus. The Freshies were now seniors ready to deliver South Carolina's first perfect season. Everything pointed to it. Everyone expected it.

But the Gamecocks lost in the national semifinals when Iowa's Caitlin Clark scored 41 points and led the Hawkeyes to a 77-73 upset.

Afterward, Staley was furious about many things, including the officiating and the fact that as the overall No. 1 seed, South Carolina played a Saturday-Monday regional schedule instead of Friday-Sunday, which meant the Gamecocks got one fewer day of rest before the Final Four than Iowa.

"With every loss, I fine-tooth-comb everything," Staley said, adding she later talked privately to the semifinal officials. "I got stuff off my chest. I said something to all of them. I've mended those things."

Five Gamecocks seniors were picked in the 2023 WNBA draft, led by No. 1 Boston. It was a tough summer for Staley trying to adjust to what she knew would be a very different kind of team.

"I said during that time, 'I don't know how much longer I can do this,'" Staley said.

Law and the rest of the staff helped her move forward.

"One day, we were sitting in her office, and she was just like, 'OK, guys, our season this year is going to be a white, blank canvas. Give me your thoughts,'" Law said. "We just went around the room, and it was almost like a little retreat. We started talking about what we could do with that canvas. It was like breathing life back into her."

That's when Staley accepted she couldn't treat this team the same as any previous group.

"I am a coach that can meet players where they are," Staley said. "I just didn't think I would ever have to go that far. I'm OK with moving 75% to their 25. But they took me to 90. The consistent thing was they worked hard, but they had fun doing it. I thought it was too much fun.

"Then I just realized, 'This is who they are.' You could mess that up thinking about how regimented and disciplined you had to be. We just gave into it. We just start laughing with them sometimes."

April 7, 2024: The perfect ending

The Iowa loss was painful to think about and worse to rewatch. One image stood out: South Carolina guard Raven Johnson dribbling, wide open, behind the 3-point arc, and Clark waving her off, as if to say, "Don't worry, she's not going to shoot it."

South Carolina needed more perimeter shooting, and guard Te-Hina Paopao, a transfer from Oregon, fit the bill. Johnson also worked on her shooting, preparing for what she called her revenge tour.

South Carolina made 163 3-pointers and shot 31% from behind the arc in 2022-23. That jumped to 253 and 39.5% in 2023-24. Johnson, who shot 24.1% (14 of 58) in 2022-23, improved to 35.0% (25 of 80). And Paopao led the way with 87 3-pointers on 46.8% shooting from downtown.

Khadijah Sessions, a Gamecocks player from 2012 to '16 and now one of South Carolina's assistant coaches, said Staley is always open to changing tactics.

"She adjusts with the times," Sessions said. "She understood in this day and age, you have to shoot the 3 more."

The closest South Carolina came to a loss last season was in the SEC tournament semifinals against Tennessee. Down 73-71 in the closing seconds, Staley put the game in the hands of 6-foot-7 center Kamilla Cardoso. Cardoso made the only 3-pointer of her college career for a 74-73 victory.

At the Final Four, the Gamecocks faced Iowa again, this time in the championship game. The demons from 2023 were gone. South Carolina won 87-75, and Staley had her third NCAA title.

South Carolina became the 10th Division I women's basketball team in the NCAA era to have a perfect season. UConn has done it six times; South Carolina, Tennessee, Baylor and Texas once.

"Going from where we were to where we went," Staley said, smiling and shaking her head, "I still can't believe it was that team that went undefeated."

Ten months later, the Gamecocks are in the hunt for the 2025 title. In that 101-60 win over Oklahoma on Jan. 19, Paopao, who returned to South Carolina for a fifth season, was one of the five players to hit double figures. The performance showcased South Carolina's depth, even after losing junior forward Ashlyn Watkins to an ACL injury in January. Seven South Carolina players average between 12.3 and 7.2 points per game.

Law said everyone likely assumes now it's easy to recruit to South Carolina because of all the Gamecocks' success.

"That's not the case at all, because you've got to recruit that much harder," Law said. "Everybody else is saying, 'Why would you want to go there? They're loaded. You're not needed. Come here and be the star.'

"We had to change our approach. We sell our culture: Do you want to be a part of a dynasty, be among other women that are trying to win championships?"

Staley thinks back to South Carolina's first NCAA title in 2017, at a time when UConn had won the previous four in a row and seemed invincible with its triple-digit winning streak.

"We gave everybody else hope then," Staley said. "Because we weren't quite a powerhouse yet. We were still up-and-coming. So it was a win not just for us, but for the overall game."

Now the Gamecocks set the standards they once chased.

"When you're successful, there are direct correlations to your habits," Staley said. "When you've won one championship, you know what contributes to you getting another one. And then another. And you just try to keep it going."