No. 18 Tennessee (2-0) defeated Georgia Tech (0-2), 45-24, Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Vols led, 24-10, at halftime in their first game at Bobby Dodd Stadium since 1986.
Freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon completed 10-of-21 passing attempts for 148 yards and two touchdowns. He also totaled 22 rushing yards on five attempts.
DeSean Bishop recorded 147 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 20 attempts, marking the fifth time he totaled 100-plus yards in his college career. Daune Morris recorded 98 rushing yards and one touchdown on 10 attempts for the Vols, who totaled 447 yards of offense, including 299 rushing yards and 148 passing yards.
Radarious Jackson led the Vols in receiving yards (64) and recorded three receptions. Ethan Davis and Braylon Staley scored one touchdown reception each for Tennessee.

#georgia

ATLANTA — Tennessee football fans will get two free cookies because Braylon Staley scored a touchdown against Georgia Tech.
Staley is UT's current so-called "Cookie Monster" for Moonshine Mountain Cookie Co., which gives fans two free cookies when the wide receiver scores a touchdown as part of his NIL deal.
The 18th-ranked Vols played Georgia Tech on Saturday, Sept. 12. But fans can pick up their free cookies on Monday, Sept. 14, at Moonshine Mountain Cookie Co. in Knoxville.
Staley's 20-yard TD catch in the second quarter earned the free cookies for UT fans.
Staley is UT's latest "Cookie Monster" for Moonshine Mountain Cookie Co. as part of an annual NIL deal. That ******* le was held by cornerback Alontae Taylor in 2021, wide receiver Cedric Tillman in 2022, wide receiver Bru McCoy in 2023-24 and kicker Max Gilbert in 2025.

#cookies

Tennessee football had just won its season opener and new starting quarterback, freshman Faizon Brandon, was greeting his parents in the north end zone of Neyland Stadium. Wide receiver Braylon Staley was right next to Brandon, endorsing the five-star freshman.
"This is the man right here," Staley said.
UT coach Josh Heupel was also pleased with Brandon's debut, but not surprised by anything he saw.
"I don't think he did anything that surprised me," Heupel said after the 56-9 win over Furman on Sept. 5. "We're just … trusting that what you've seen on the field through the body of work is going to show up on gameday too. But for a young player, he managed and stayed within himself extremely well, which is the expectation."
Brandon dazzled in his first college start, throwing for 226 yards and three touchdowns and adding 68 yards and two more scores on the ground over less than three quarters of work.

#right

Tennessee football had just won its season opener and new starting quarterback, freshman Faizon Brandon, was greeting his parents in the north end zone of Neyland Stadium. Wide receiver Braylon Staley was right next to Brandon, endorsing the five-star freshman.
"This is the man right here," Staley said.
UT coach Josh Heupel was also pleased with Brandon's debut, but not surprised by anything he saw.
"I don't think he did anything that surprised me," Heupel said after the 56-9 win over Furman on Sept. 5. "We're just … trusting that what you've seen on the field through the body of work is going to show up on gameday too. But for a young player, he managed and stayed within himself extremely well, which is the expectation."
Brandon dazzled in his first college start, throwing for 226 yards and three touchdowns and adding 68 yards and two more scores on the ground over less than three quarters of work.

#brandon #heupel #right #yards

Freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon will debut for Tennessee football as the 18th-ranked Vols play Furman in the 2026 season opener on Sept. 5.
Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET with a sellout crowd at Neyland Stadium. It will be streamed on ESPN+ and SEC Network+.
Brandon, 18, is the youngest starting quarterback in UT history. He'll be surrounded by proven performers like 1,000-yard rusher DeSean Bishop, wide receivers Mike Matthews and Braylon Staley and an experienced offensive line.
Jim Knowles will debut as UT defensive coordinator, along with several transfers on defense. And coach Josh Heupel is vying for his 46th win at Tennessee, which would tie Doug ******* ey for sixth place on the Vols' all-time wins list.
Follow live updates here of Tennessee vs. Furman.

#quarterback #faizon

Brandon Staley is heading into his second season as the Saints' defensive coordinator, but his previous experience as an NFL head coach has him thinking about what a second chance in that spot might look like.
Staley earned a reputation for being ultra-aggressive while going 19-15 in his first two seasons as the head coach of the Chargers, but the weight of some of those decisions misfiring and a blown 27-point lead against the Jaguars in the playoffs put him on the hot seat when the 2023 season started badly. The Chargers wound up firing him after Week 15 and Staley spent the 2024 season with the 49ers before joining Kellen Moore in New Orleans.
Staley said "as tough and impossible as it was at the end" of his time with the Chargers, he feels he has to use them the right way to grow as a coach. He shared what he thinks he would do differently if given another opportunity to run a team.
"I would have a lot more poise and composure in terms of knowing when to push and when to pull," Staley said, via Jeff Howe of TheAthletic.com. "I was trying to push it, and I was trying to get us there as fast as we could. When you have more experience, you know when to do both of those things. You just have a better feel and understanding, and that's in all aspects of being a leader. That's why the next time, I just have so much more experience now — I didn't have any back then. I could have done a better job. I know for a fact I would do a better job just with more turns at it, living through more — little decisions and big decisions."
There's high hopes for the Saints heading into this season thanks to a strong finish to last year after handing the offensive reins to quarterback Tyler Shough. If Staley's defense can help push the team even further this fall, he could get a chance to expand on his new coaching philosophies with teams looking for a new head coach.

#coach #saints

By Nupur Anand
NEW YORK, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Former JPMorgan Chase executive Jes Staley told U.S. lawmakers he repeatedly shared confidential and market-sensitive bank information with Jeffrey Epstein and was at one point ‌named as a trustee of his estate, according to a transcript released by the U.S. Congress House ‌Oversight Committee.
These admissions come as lawmakers probe the late convicted **** offender's ties with political and business elites. Staley appeared before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in July as part of its investigation into Epstein and his **** ociate Ghislaine Maxwell. Transcripts from the meeting were released on Wednesday.
In the closed-door, voluntary interview conducted on July 24, Staley said he divulged to Epstein the bank's communications with the Federal Reserve during the 2008 financial crisis, a figure of $44 billion in private ‌bank inflows over two weeks, his own ⁠compensation, and details of pending deals.
Staley also admitted to sharing other confidential information about JPMorgan with Epstein, according to the transcript.

#staley #epstein #oversight

The UConn women's basketball team, winner of 12 national championships, will renew a slew of rivalries during the non-conference portion of their 2026-27 schedule.
The slate, which was announced Monday, Aug. 17, includes matchups with South Carolina, Tennessee and Notre Dame.
UConn will face Dawn Staley's Gamecocks on Nov. 24 at the Hall of Fame Showcase at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. This will be the first meeting between UConn and South Carolina since the 2026 Final Four where UConn coach Geno Auriemma got upset near the end of the loss that ended the Huskies' perfect season, yelling at Staley before leaving the court.
The Huskies will visit the Fighting Irish at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend, Indiana, on Dec. 9, marking the 58th meeting between the two sides. UConn beat Notre Dame twice last season, once in Storrs, Connecticut, and again in the Elite Eight in Fort Worth, Texas. UConn leads the all-time series 41-16 and the teams are 5-5 over their last 10 meetings.
Tennessee and UConn will square off on Dec. 12 at a still to-be-announced location. The Huskies have won five of the last six meetings with the Lady Vols, with Tennessee's victory coming on Feb. 6, 2025 in Knoxville during Kim Caldwell's first season as head coach.

#uconn #season #carolina #connecticut

UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — During this Hall of Fame weekend, nearly everyone would like the attention to be on basketball, but it's difficult to ignore the conversations that are swirling around the WNBA — especially with some of the league's greatest icons being enshrined.
The ongoing vitriol centered around race, gender and ***** uality makes for daily headlines. They are part of an undertone to fouls and physicality that have come with the evolution of women's skills, all of which overshadow the impressive play that can be seen during the WNBA's 30th year.
Hall of Famer Dawn Staley, who is getting inducted again Saturday with the 1996 Olympic women's basketball team, sees a positive side to the negativity. Staley said there are similar parallels between what the WNBA is going through and what the NBA went through in the early stages of its growth.
"All the big pieces and all the things that are happening from a racial standpoint, from an officiating standpoint are great. They're great because the NBA went through it — the NBA went through all of it," she said. "So this is just badges of honor. Will we get through it? We will get through it."
What the NBA had to deal with was who could play in the league. It was an all-white league when it was launched and there was resistance to integration. The WNBA has been hit lately with a narrative on whether transgender women — people ***** igned male at birth who transition to align with their gender identity — should be allowed to play in the league. There has never been one.

#play #went #league

LAWRENCE — Marian Washington is a Kansas women's basketball icon.
The Jayhawks' all-time winningest head coach led that KU program for 31 seasons from 1973 to 2004. She enjoyed 11 NCAA tournament appearances, many conference ***** les and more. She was also an ***** et to the athletic department in other ways, too.
And on Saturday, Aug. 15 in Springfield, Massachusetts, Washington will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for her role with the 1996 women's national team for USA Basketball. Washington was an ***** istant coach for Stanford's Tara VanDerveer for the Olympics that year. According to a release from Kansas athletics, Washington became "the first female African American coach on a USA Olympic Basketball coaching staff."
RELATED: 5 insights into Kansas women's basketball with coach Brandon Schneider
The KU release added: "The 1996 USA Basketball Women's National Team captured the gold medal at the Atlanta Games, finishing with an undefeated 8-0 record and an average margin of victory of more than 30 points. Coached by VanDerveer, the team featured a roster that included future Hall of Famers Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, Dawn Staley, Teresa Edwards, Rebecca Lobo, and Katrina McClain. The squad's dominant performance helped elevate the global profile of women's basketball and contributed to the launch of the WNBA later that year."

#hall #year

The New Orleans Saints could have a major injury issue on their hands. Things are starting to become concerning throughout the Saints' roster, and with it being early in their rebuild, New Orleans does not have the facilities to deal with players consistently going down. We have seen minor and major injuries hit this team, and with another day of camp in the books, yet another notable injury occurred.
Today, starting nose tackle Davon Godchaux left practice with an ankle injury.
Instead of focusing more on the string of injuries, let's just focus on this one. If Godchaux is out for an extended time and this injury is substantial, it's not the end of the world. He is the starting nose tackle, which is extremely important in Brandon Staley's scheme, but the Saints just selected Christen Miller in the second round. So far, it seems the Saints view Miller as Godchaux's successor, so that timeline may need to be accelerated a bit. This puts pressure on a rookie that could negatively impact his development, but it can also be an oppurtunity for the rookie to prove to the coaching staff he can start right away.
Again, we don't know the severity of this injury, so Godchaux may just miss the time from today's practice, but for a position like NT, an ankle injury could become very annoying.

#orleans #miller #become

UConn and LSU, two of the dominant women's college basketball programs in the country, will play in Nashville during the 2026-27 season.
The game had been acknowledged since January but no official release of location was announced until Aug. 7. It will be played on Dec. 20 at Bridgestone Arena as part of the Sprouts Farm Market espnW Invitational. The invitational also features Virginia vs. Kentucky women.
The invitational features two of the top top women's basketball coaches in the country in Geno Auriemma at UConn and Kim Mulkey at LSU. It is the two programs' first meeting since Nov. 20, 2016.
Game times have not yet been announced.
UConn reached the NCAA Women's Tournament Final Four in 2026, falling to national runner-up South Carolina and Dawn Staley. UConn finished last season 38-1. LSU was 29-6 and lost in the Sweet 16 to Duke.

#Basketball #programs #since #announced

Martin Emerson Jr. had several factors when choosing where to continue his NFL career following a torn Achilles in 2025. His conversation with New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Brandon Staley helped make that decision a lot easier.
Emerson said on Thursday that Staley's confidence in his game was one of the biggest reasons he signed with the Saints. The two spoke during Emerson's visit about the opportunity available in a young New Orleans cornerback room.
"He believes in me," Emerson said. "He's going to give me an opportunity to be me and bring out the best in me."
Emerson brings more NFL experience than several of the cornerbacks competing alongside him, like Kool-Aid McKinstry and Quincy Riley. He wants to help the younger players develop, but is also competing for a significant role himself: "I feel like I will come in and be an **** et to this team and also bring our younger guys along because I've seen a little bit more ball than them. We all work together. We all are one."
As for his return to football, Emerson said each practice has helped him regain comfort with the defensive calls. He's eyeing a return to the aggressive style that had defined his game, and that starts with lining up in press coverage and challenging receivers at the line of scrimmage — what Emerson calls his "superpower."

#several #game #competing

This is the second part of this series, where the game is that I get to victory lap these wins while not being held accountable for any potential misses. These are the made up rules of a bold predictions column. If you want straight-forward takes, please visit the Yahoo Ultra Draft Guide, which includes over 150 pages of advice from the Yahoo crew and a draft strategy lab where you can test different approaches.
Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2026 NFL season
If you missed the QB and WR bold predictions, head here to read more.
The bar to be in the top-five is really high, and it'll take one of these fringe Round 1 RBs to accumulate enough pass-game work to pair with a very strong goal-line role. Walker is my favorite roll of the dice, especially on Yahoo, where his ADP is well into Round 2.
The Chiefs paid him handsomely after a Super Bowl MVP with the Seahawks, and that was their only skill position change of the offseason, one that featured their top receiver going to jail and their top tight end going on honeymoons with the most famous woman in the world. Walker will be the focal point of the offense as Patrick Mahomes comes back from a torn ACL. When head coach Andy Reid had quality backs, he turned them into fantasy football league-winners. Duce Staley, Brian Westbrook, LeSean McCoy, Kareem Hunt, etc. Walker could match what Shady McCoy did in his final three seasons with Reid: a 1,825 scrimmage-yard pace. I'd also argue this is the best OL that Walker will run behind, so his explosive play rate could jump another tier.

#reid #mccoy

Minnesota Lynx guard Olivia Miles played like a seasoned veteran against a formidable foe, Caitlin Clark and the visiting Indiana Fever. The rookie showed poise throughout the game, including in the clutch, to clinch a 108-100 victory despite Clark and Fever star Kelsey Mitchell's efforts. Onlookers praised Miles for how well she played against Clark and Mitchell. One spectator was South Carolina Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley, who posted on her X/Twitter page. Miles was never under Staley's tutelage; she played for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the TCU Horned Frogs. Still, Staley couldn't help but praise Miles for the masterclass she put up.
"oliviamiles06 got me in my house cursing on a Sunday. Lord have mercy! WNBA I saw a logo change in this app…..use it!," Staley shared.
Staley later shared a photo of Miles' silhouette as the WNBA logo.
Miles finished the intense matchup against the Fever with a team-high 28 points on an efficient 11-of-14 shooting clip, adding four rebounds, six **** ists and a block in 32 minutes. On the other hand, for the Fever, Clark dropped a double-double of 19 points and 10 **** ists while Mitchell pitched in a game-high 37 points.
During the postgame news conference, Olivia Miles, joined by Minnesota Lynx veteran Courtney Williams, was asked about what it was like facing the Indiana Fever in front of over 16,000 spectators. Given that she is still a WNBA rookie, Miles' ability to stay composed in such a hotly contested matchup is rare. Miles said that she was just glad to have gotten the win despite the hostile fanfare.

#miles #staley #lynx #olivia

Lynx's Olivia Miles reacts to Dawn Staley's push for WNBA logo change appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Dawn Staley's reaction towards Olivia Miles' latest performance in the Minnesota Lynx's matchup against the Indiana Fever went viral on social media on Sunday night.
Miles is going through the rookie campaign of her WNBA career, having an incredible start with the Lynx. She is on pace for Rookie of the Year honors, having the squad perform at an elite level.
In 32 minutes of action, Miles shined on the court with her display against Indiana defenders. She finished with a stat line of 28 points, six ******* ists, four rebounds, and a block. She shot 11-of-14 from the field, including 3-of-6 from beyond the arc, and 3-of-3 from the free-throw line.
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#miles #dawn #indiana #free

Olivia Miles is playing a major role in Minnesota's regular-season rampage. On Sunday, the No. 2 pick in this year's draft scored a mind-blowing 28 points, leading the Lynx to a big win over the Caitlin Clark-led Indiana Fever.
Miles' performance also blew the mind of WNBA legend and South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley, who even urged the league to base the logo's silhouette on the young guard's image.
Olivia Miles continued her phenomenal season, scoring 28 points on 11-for-14 shooting from the field. The TCU standout, who made three 3-pointers and went 3-for-3 at the foul line, also finished with 4 rebounds, 6 ****** ists, and 1 block in 32 minutes.
She masterfully guided the league-leading Lynx to a crucial win over the Fever in a marquee matchup with a playoff atmosphere.
Miles' awesome performance against one of the playoff favorites left legendary point guard and three-time NCAA women's basketball champion Staley offering some choice words in amazement at Miles' superb showing.

#lynx

Demario Davis signing back with the New York Jets this summer no doubt leaves a huge void in the Saints locker room, not only for his play but for his commanding leadership.
Speaking to the media after day 3 of camp, linebacker Pete Werner touched on what he learned from playing alongside Davis and how his own leadership style has developed over his five years in the NFL.
"Second year in the [Brandon] Staley defense, you start to develop a little confidence," said Werner.
The former Ohio State Buckeye mentioned his excitement to be reunited with Kaden Elliss, who returns to New Orleans after three seasons in Atlanta, but also made a point about the departing vet. "We miss a guy like Demario; that's gonna be a guy that's hard to replace."
"I've always been a guy that's, you know, lead by example," said Werner. "But being in this system, you start to develop a voice, and you want to be a guy that the guys can rely on. And I see myself in that position, not only making plays on the field but helping guys off the field and uniting this defense together."

#werner #davis #guys

Injuries are never a good thing for a team or a player, and one that knocks the player out for an entire season is devastating. The New Orleans Saints have had pretty good luck in recent years avoiding these major injuries before the season began, but that good luck ran out quickly. On the first day of training camp, one of the most important players for the Saints' future went down with a potentially season-ending injury: DT Bryan Bresee.
Before getting to what an injury like this does to the roster, we have to talk about what this means for Bresee. 2026 was set to be an extremely impactful year for Bresee. He took a step forward in 2025, and his run defense became more consistent. This season was supposed to be the year that he could put everything together and prove to everyone that he is the franchise's star DT. With a potential contract extension set in 2028, Bresee must prove to the Saints that it will be worth it, but missing an entire year could prevent that.
Now let's talk about the defense. Bresee is a very important player, and if he were going to take that developmental step forward, the defensive line could have been dangerous, but that's not going to happen now. The defensive tackle position was already a questionable group, so this new injury makes it even more of a question mark. It's arguably the weakest part of the roster. Investments have been made, such as the selections of Vernon Broughton and Christen Miller, but those are two unproven commodities. Broughton only played one game last season, and Miller is a rookie. Then, behind them, Davon Godchaux is the NT, so he wouldn't fill Bresee's position, as the former first-round pick is in Brandon Staley's 3-4 DE spot. The same is true for John Ridgeway III, so that leaves Nathan Shepherd as really the only veteran DT that can step in.
Already since Bresee went down with an injury, the Saints have utilized Broughton and Shepherd in that open spot, so those may be the two players to take over, but the edge rushers on teh roster could also be in that position. Carl Granderson started the season playing more of an OLB role for the Saints, but as the season went on, he saw more consistent success as a 3-4 DE. He may end up being a player that can step up and hold the spot down while Bresee is out.

#player #broughton

With the New Orleans Saints officially entering a new era at quarterback, no one understands the demands of leading the franchise better than Pro Football Hall of Famer Drew Brees.
In an exclusive one-on-one interview with Covers.com, the future Hall of Famer sat down with DJ Siddiqi to discuss the Saints' outlook under quarterback Tyler Shough, who enters his second season and first as the team's Week 1 starter. Brees praised the young signal-caller's maturity, poise and leadership while expressing optimism about the direction of the offense under head coach Kellen Moore.
"I've been really impressed with him," Brees said. "I talked to him around the draft last year, at training camp, during the season and right before he took over."
Brees said he watched the Saints gradually come together despite facing significant changes on both sides of the football.
"To watch that team come together—in a lot of ways it was a new offense with Kellen Moore, it was a new defense with Brandon Staley—but man, they really hit their stride at the end of the year, and in large part, the quarterback was playing well."

#brees #famer #Football #season

LeBron James' announcement that he is coming to Philadelphia drew enthusiastic reactions from across the sports world, including players, coaches and local athletes, even as the 76ers organization has not yet publicly commented on the news.
Among those reacting were future teammates Tyrese Maxey, newly acquired guard Jaylen Brown and shooting guard VJ Edgecomb.
IMAGE: Tyrese Maxey reacts to news that Lebron James is coming to Philly.
Philadelphia basketball icon and South Carolina coach Dawn Staley also welcomed James to the city and offered to help him get settled.
"We got the king! Welcome to Philly, Bron. Let me know if you need any spots," Staley said.

#lebron #coming #guard #jaylen

LeBron James' announcement that he is coming to Philadelphia drew enthusiastic reactions from across the sports world, including players, coaches and local athletes, even as the 76ers organization has not yet publicly commented on the news.
Among those reacting were future teammates Tyrese Maxey, newly acquired guard Jaylen Brown and shooting guard VJ Edgecomb.
IMAGE: Tyrese Maxey reacts to news that Lebron James is coming to Philly.
Philadelphia basketball icon and South Carolina coach Dawn Staley also welcomed James to the city and offered to help him get settled.
"We got the king! Welcome to Philly, Bron. Let me know if you need any spots," Staley said.

#philly

What a weekend for the Las Vegas Aces. Just one day after beating the Phoenix Mercury 106-58, they fell to the Indiana Fever.
The Aces couldn’t carry over the momentum from Saturday’s historic 48-point victory over the Mercury, suffering a lopsided 109-75 loss to the Fever at Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas.
Indiana controlled the game from the opening quarter and never looked back, handing the Aces their second loss to the Fever in about a week.
With Lisa Leslie and Dawn Staley sitting courtside, the Aces-Fever matchup featured plenty of star power both on and off the court.
The moment Aces fans have been anxiously waiting for happened on Sunday night — Dana Evans was back in the game for the first time this season after being out with an injury since earlier this year.

WNBA rookie Ta'Niya Latson gets the chance to learn from the best player to ever put on a South Carolina women's basketball uniform.
After Latson was waived by the Los Angeles Sparks on July 6, she signed a developmental contract with the Las Vegas Aces on July 8 where she'll play with A'ja Wilson, the league's only four-time MVP.
Latson was taken No. 20 overall in the second round of the 2026 WNBA Draft but the 5-foot-8 guard only averaged 1.8 points and 5.0 minutes across 10 games before getting cut.
Coach Dawn Staley now is back to having 13 former Gamecocks in the league this season which is a program record. Wilson played for Staley from 2014-18, playing on the program's first national championship in 2017 before going No. 1 overall in the 2018 draft.
Wilson averages a league-high 25.7 points per game but hasn't played since June 28 because of a leg injury. The Latson news comes a day after the Aces waived Chennedy Carter, a 5-9 guard who was averaging 14.3 points. They also signed former Vanderbilt small forward Justine ******* ott to a rest of the season contract.

Ta'Niya Latson has found a new home in the WNBA.
Two days after the former South Carolina Gamecock was waived by the Los Angeles Sparks, the Las Vegas Aces announced Wednesday night that they had signed Latson to a development player contract.
Latson, a 5-foot-8 guard, was selected 20th overall in the 2026 WNBA Draft by the Sparks. She appeared in 10 games with the team, notching a season-best six points, three rebounds and two **** ists in a loss to the Minnesota Lynx on June 17.
A native of Miami, Latson began her collegiate career at Florida State. In her rookie season for the Seminoles, she was given the Tamika Catchings Award as the nation's top freshman by the U.S. Basketball Writers **** ociation. As a junior for Brooke Wyckoff's team, she led the nation in scoring with 25.2 points per game.
Latson was a three-time All-ACC selection at Florida State and earned an All-American nod, but the Seminoles never advanced past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament during her three seasons in Tallahassee. Ahead of her senior season, she transferred to Dawn Staley's program at South Carolina with her sights set on playing in — and winning — meaningful games. The transfer also reunited Latson with her high school teammate, Raven Johnson.

South Carolina women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley just let the world know that she’s a big fan of BYU’s Diljeet Taylor.
Staley appeared on Citius Mag’s Prefontaine Classic show on Saturday and shared her admiration for BYU’s women’s cross-country head coach and ***** ociate director of track and field.
“I’ve seen the way Diljeet coaches her players,” Staley said. “She’s a mentor. She’s mom-like. She is someone that gives the athlete all of her, like she meets the athlete where they are on any given day.”
In 2024, Staley and Taylor were named to Nike’s Athlete Think Tank, the Deseret News previously reported. They were part of the first coaches cohort of the think tank, along with U.S. women’s national soccer team head coach Emma Hayes and former Olympic volleyball coach Jenny Lang Ping.
“You probably have to hold her back because she wants to get on the track and just kind of will her athletes to the finish line, and that’s what it takes,” Staley said.

The WNBA continues to discover new ways to shoot itself in the foot.
It is the league’s 30th anniversary season, and the latest self-inflicted wound is a poster celebrating that historic milestone.
On the surface, it looks harmless. The poster looks like something that might hang in a 10-year-old’s bedroom or a college kid’s dorm. Dawn Staley’s awesome teal and purple Charlotte Sting jersey pops in the middle of it and she’s surrounded by a handful of recognizable faces from the past and present: Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson, Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese, to name a few.
But a closer look shows a few things the WNBA is guilty of far too often: incompetence, a lack of oversight and a void of creativity.
For starters, this poster is $30 and looks like something that could’ve been designed in PhotoShop 15 years ago. It is simply a collection of logos and stock images of players. It seemingly wants to take inspiration from one of those throwback Sports Illustrated covers the magazine rolled out during March Madness, a “Where’s Waldo” style collage meant to evoke excitement for the NCAA Tournament.

Kara Lawson has gradually made Duke a force in women’s basketball, and as part of that rise, her Blue Devils are getting some tough draws schedule-wise. And along those lines, Duke will play Dawn Staley’s powerhouse South Carolina team again this fall as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge.
The Gamecocks will come to Cameron on December 3rd.
South Carolina is a formidable opponent, but the only way to get to the level of a South Carolina, UConn, or UCLA, is to play those teams.
In short, it’s a great opportunity for the Blue Devils to improve.
Duke to Host South Carolina in 2026 SEC/ACC Challenge

COLUMBIA — The ACC-SEC Challenge started just three years ago but for the second time, South Carolina women's basketball and Duke are paired up.
South Carolina will travel to Cameron Indoor Stadium on Dec. 3 as part of the cross-conference challenge, the program announced June 5. Game times and TV channels will be announced at a later date.
The challenge was introduced for the 2023-24 season. South Carolina played UNC on the road the first year, Duke at home the second, Louisville on the road last year and now will play Duke on the road.
This also marks the fourth straight season South Carolina is playing Duke. Coach Dawn Staley is currently 8-1 against the Blue Devils, which includes the last six straight. Her lone loss to the program was in 2016.
Schedule news is slowly rolling out for the 2026-27 season but it was announced last fall that the Gamecocks will open the season against Maryland on Nov. 2 in Paris.