Dawn M Murray Popular Books

Dawn M Murray Biography & Facts

Dawn Michelle Staley (born May 4, 1970) is an American basketball Hall of Fame player and coach who is currently the head coach for the reigning champion South Carolina Gamecocks women's team. Staley won three Olympic gold medals with Team USA as a player and later was head coach of another U.S. gold-medal winning team. Staley was elected to carry the United States flag at the opening ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics. After playing point guard for the University of Virginia under Debbie Ryan, and winning the gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics, she played professionally in the American Basketball League and WNBA. In 2011, fans named Staley one of the top 15 players in WNBA history. Staley was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012. She was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. While a WNBA player, she started coaching the Temple University Owls women's basketball team in 2000. In eight years at Temple, she led the program to six NCAA tournaments, three regular-season conference championships, and four conference tournament titles. On May 7, 2008, she was named head coach for women's basketball at the University of South Carolina. Staley built South Carolina's program from the ground up. In her first six seasons as head coach, she improved their record every year, winning the SEC in 2013–14. In late 2014, her team achieved the program's first #1 ranking, making her only the second individual to both play on and coach a #1-ranked team. Staley has led South Carolina to eight SEC regular season championships, eight SEC tournament championships, eight Sweet Sixteens, five Final Fours, and three NCAA women's basketball national championships. On April 2, 2020, Staley became the first person to win the Naismith Award as both a player and a coach. She also won the other three major National Coach of the Year awards after she led her team to a 32-win season and a final ranking of #1 in both major polls. Staley served as the United States women's national team head coach from 2017 to 2021, finishing with a perfect 45–0 record, before returning full time to South Carolina. In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Staley won her first gold medal as head coach for Team USA, and fourth overall, winning all six games.On April 3, 2022, Staley led the Gamecocks to their second national title with a 64–49 win over UConn, finishing the season 35–2 and ranked #1 in both major polls for the entire season. Staley would be named Naismith Award winner as the best coach in the nation for 2022.On April 7, 2024, she guided the #1 ranked Gamecocks to an undefeated 38–0 season, defeating Iowa 87–75 to win the team's third national title. Staley once again won National Coach of the year honors. Early life Her parents, Clarence and Estelle Staley, moved to North Philadelphia from Orangeburg County, South Carolina in the 1950s, when they were still teenagers. They married young and in 1967 moved into a three-bedroom, single-bath row house in the Raymond Rosen Homes housing project. Together, Clarence, a part-time carpenter, and Estelle, a homemaker, raised five children—three boys, Lawrence, Anthony and Eric, and two girls, Tracey and Dawn. Fearful of her disciplinarian mother, who was of faith and would not spare the rod, Staley knew to "abide by her rules, you lived clean. You're good. You live a happy life". Playing career High school years Staley was named the national high school player of the year during her final season at Murrell Dobbins Vocational High School in Philadelphia. College years Staley attended the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville, Virginia, from which she earned her degree in Rhetoric and Communication Studies. During her four seasons in college, she led her team to four NCAA tournaments, three Final Fours and one national championship game. She was named the ACC female athlete of the year and the national player of the year in 1991 and 1992. Staley finished her college career with 2,135 points and held the NCAA record for career steals with 454 (which has since been broken by current record holder, Natalie White). She finished her career at Virginia as the school's all-time scoring leader and as the ACC's all-time leader in assists at 729, but those records have since been broken by former UVA stars Monica Wright and Sharnee Zoll. Her number 24 is retired at UVA. Overseas Pro Career In 1994–1995, after graduation, Staley played professional basketball in France in Tarbes, Italy, Brazil, and Spain before joining the ABL and then the WNBA. USA Basketball Staley was named to the USA Basketball Women's Junior National Team (now called the U19 team). The team participated in the second Junior World Championship, held in Bilbao, Spain, in July 1989. Team USA lost their opening game to South Korea in overtime, then lost a two-point game to Australia. After defeating Bulgaria, Team USA lost another close game, this time to Czechoslovakia by three points. The team followed that loss with a victory against Zaire, but dropped its final game to Spain, again by three points. Staley averaged 10.8 points per game and recorded 14 steals over the course of the event, both second highest on the team. The Americans finished the tournament in seventh place. Staley was named to the team representing the United States at the World University Games held during July 1991 in Sheffield, England. While the American team had won gold in 1983, they finished with the silver in 1985, in fifth place in 1987, and did not field a team in 1989. The team was coached by Tara VanDerveer of Stanford. After winning opening games easily, Team USA faced China in the medal round. The Americans shot only 36% from the field, but limited the Chinese to just 35%, and advanced to the gold medal game by a score of 79–76. There they faced Spain, who had won all seven of their previous tournament games. However, Team USA defeated them easily, 88–62, to claim the gold medal. Staley averaged 4.9 points per game for the tournament. Staley competed with USA Basketball as a member of the 1992 Jones Cup Team that won the Gold in Taipei.Staley played for Team USA throughout her career. In 1994 she competed in the World Championships and was named the USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year. She led the 1996 team to an undefeated record of 60–0 and the gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. She was also a member of the 2000 Olympic team that defended the gold medal.Staley was selected to represent the United States at the 1995 USA Women's Pan American Games, but only four teams committed to participate, so the event was cancelled.Staley was named to the United States national team in 1998. The national team traveled to Berlin, Germany, in July and August 1998 for the FIBA World Championships. Team USA won a close opening game against Japan, 95–89, then won their next six games easily. In the semifinal game against Brazil, Team USA was behind as much as ten poin.... Discover the Dawn M Murray popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Dawn M Murray books.