Clemson women’s basketball coach Audra Smith agreed to go to Dallas and support her former teammate and close friend Dawn Staley at the Final Four in April, but she wasn’t about to join in on the celebration after South Carolina won the national title.
Smith was in the crowd and sitting in South Carolina’s section when the Gamecocks topped Mississippi State.
She was walking out of the American Airlines Center when she received a phone call.
“I was there quietly in all black… The game’s over, and I’m like, ‘Oh wow, that’s awesome,’ ” Smith recalled.