South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley had a viral moment when she responded to Louisiana State University (LSU) fans booing after her team’s big 76-70 road victory on Jan. 25.
When asked about the hostile crowd, Staley jokingly spun the crowd’s response into a positive one: “Actually they were [friendly], they were calling me ‘boo,’” she quipped, according to Sports Illustrated.
Leaning into her funny “boo” comment, Staley showed up to the Vanderbilt game on Jan. 28 repping a sweatshirt with the word “Boo” across the front of it. The South Carolina women’s basketball coach made the hostile reception from opposing fans into a viral moment of humor.
The South Carolina women’s basketball coach’s viral soundbite spawned funny merchandise and national attention. “They were calling me ‘boo,’” she repeated with a smile, Sports Illustrated noted. Staley’s comments spread across the internet like wildfire after she chose to abstain from negatively characterizing the loud booing crowd from the public university in Baton Rouge, LA.
Chandler Mack, a sportscaster for WLTX, posted an image of the coach on X/Twitter. The caption read, “Dawn Staley rocking the ‘BOO’ hoodie today.”
Staley’s lighthearted response not only reached many of her and the team’s fans online, but in the end, South Carolina remained undefeated, to the LSU faithful’s dismay.
The women’s basketball coach concluded of the boisterous booing, “If I could personally meet everybody that booed, I’m assuming they’re LSU fans. So we want to make more of them.”
The coach credited the rowdy atmosphere for energizing her team. “It was a hostile crowd, tough place to play, and we needed that,” she assessed. Riding the “boo” momentum, the still-undefeated Gamecocks dominated Vanderbilt 91-74 on Jan. 28. The No. 1 Gamecocks came back to beat the No. 8 Tigers in a tense matchup.
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