Dawn Staley's coaching evolution continues.

Part of it's necessity. The world, along with players and player attitudes plus adaptability, have changed since she was coming up. A self-described "traditional, old-school" coach, Staley had to choose between changing her coaching style or being left behind.

The other part?

South Carolina's women's basketball coach really embraced changing her ways last year, and it resulted in a 38-0 season and her third national championship despite an entirely new starting lineup. It clearly worked then, so why can't it keep working?

Staley could still joke about the team that's now crossed into legend as "Dawn's Day Care."

"Last year, if I wasn't a pivoting coach, they would have driven me out of this profession. I like for my team to take on their identity," she said at the SEC Tipoff event in Birmingham, Ala. "This team, they're silly, they like to have a lot of fun, they talk a lot, and just about senseless stuff. It used to get on my nerves early."

Yet on the court, they know what to do. It's mostly the same team as last year, but there were certainly no worries in a 106-63 obliteration of Memphis in the Gamecocks' first exhibition on Tuesday.

And as Staley pointed out, they're accountable to each other. They don't need Staley hammering them over the head about rules and protocol.

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"If something doesn't look, sound or feel right, they address it. That's really, really gratifying to know that that's the type of culture we have," Staley said. "They've changed me. I don't fight those battles anymore."

She brought two seniors with her to SEC Tipoff on Wednesday -- Raven Johnson and Sania Feagin. Both echoed their coach in interactions with the media. They continue to learn from Staley as she continues to learn from them.

In the stricter days, when the team was led by La'Keisha Sutton or Tiffany Mitchell or A'ja Wilson or Aliyah Boston, if the players were told to wear their sweats on the plane to a road game, there'd be hell to pay if there was one player not in her sweats. Now?

"They'd tell me, 'Hers was dirty,' " Staley said. "They have to be that way, and we allow them to be that way. It's cool when it's working. Right now, we don't have to step in."

Fulwiley update

Staley didn't have an exact diagnosis on sophomore guard MiLaysia Fulwiley, who twisted her left ankle in the third quarter against Memphis and did not return, but she wasn't concerned. She said that Fulwiley was going to see doctors in Columbia but was walking after the game.

USC Gamecocks Sports Freshman Edwards stands out as Gamecocks thrash Memphis in exhibition By David Cloninger [email protected]