South Carolina's Dawn Staley says NIL pay has become key to recruitment: 'You've gotta lead with that'
'After the pleasantries are done, you gotta get to the question so you're not wasting your time and spinning your wheels on somebody that you can't afford.'
For the 10th time in Dawn Staley’s tenure as South Carolina’s head coach, the Gamecocks will be playing in the Elite Eight, hoping to advance to the Final Four for the sixth straight year. But Staley is the first to admit how much things have changed in college basketball over the past few years. In a news conference ahead of the matchup against TCU on Monday, the longtime South Carolina coach got candid about how recruitment these days comes down to money.
"How much is it going to cost us? That's the conversation. You've gotta lead with that,” Staley said, when asked how the recruiting conversations have changed.
“Because you don't really want to waste your time. You either are going to have enough to pay players, or you don't. And you move on.
Because although you can promise a young person this or that, if your budget says otherwise — I don't like to promise anything that isn't available to us. I don't want to have to go out and get the money because you could be told no and then your back is against the wall. “I won't say I lead with that question, but I get to it fairly quickly.