Dawn Staley claims Chloe Kitts has more than earned her South Carolina success

On By Littum

Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks women’s basketball team had to play its Nov. 10 game against NC State without star player Chloe Kitts due to what was deemed an “academic policy issue.”

Kitts ended up returning to the field a game later (and was subjected to dad jokes as a result) and wasted no time getting back to the elite form that Gamecocks fans have come to expect from her.

Kitts has been one of South Carolina’s best players so far in 2024-25. After no. 3 ranked Gamecocks’ 81-70 win over no. 8 ranked Duke Blue Devils on Dec. 5 (where Kitts scored 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds), Staley got candid about the growth and dedication she’s seen from Kitts this season.

“Chloe wants it bad, you know. Sometimes it works for her and sometimes it works against her. Today it worked,” Staley said after the game. by Matt Dowell.

“Basically yesterday… she’s telling me I don’t believe her. Where do you get that from? Part of it is you can look at the minutes and her minutes went down over Thanksgiving… She took some bad shots over Thanksgiving and I took her out because of it.

“She didn’t take bad shots (tonight),” Staley added of Kitts. “And because of that, she gets those kinds of performances. When she gets bad shots, it kind of adds up to us not being able to correct the streak… my expectation is that she takes better shots so she can set the example.

Staley added: “I’m happy because Chloe is pouring herself in. She’s doing all the right things in terms of preparing herself… making lifestyle changes for her to play like this. She wants to be a professional, so she’s active in doing things and creating habits that will help her. So I want basketball to pay her back every time she steps on the floor because there are so many (players) that just come for to train and that’s it.

“She goes the extra mile, so I want basketball to pay her back like this a lot more than it has,” Staley concluded.

That’s high praise from a basketball coach who has managed a lot of great players and hard workers.