GREENVILLE, S.C. — Dawn Staley greeted her players at midcourt on Monday with a pregame ritual, briefly dancing a two-step called the Baltimore Shuffle. After the South Carolina women’s basketball team dispatched Maryland to reach the Final Four of the N.C.A.A. tournament, the Gamecocks cut down the net at one basket. Staley, their coach since 2008, slipped it like jewelry over her Louis Vuitton sweatsuit. A “netlace,” she has called it through the years.
This weekend in Dallas, South Carolina (36-0) is favored to cut down another net as it seeks a second consecutive national championship and a third overall for Staley and her team.