Women’s Basketball Hall Of Fame

Women’s Basketball Hall Of Fame, Dawn Staley, the South Carolina women’s basketball coach and three-time Olympic gold medalist, just keeps finding plenty to celebrate in Tennessee. Her latest is heading up the 2012 class of inductees into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.Staley led the Gamec**ks to their first-ever road win over Tennessee in Knoxville in February. She was back Friday ready to be inducted along with the rest of the 2012 class: broadcaster Robin Roberts, All Americans Nikki McCray, Pamela McGee and Inge Nissen and coach Nancy Fahey.

“I was very happy because I think it’s a tremendous honor,” Staley said. “But on the flip side of that, I’m thinking, ‘I’ve got to put a c**ktail dress on and give a speech.’ I was kind of mixed with it. I enjoy the recognition but it’s at the cost of getting up and giving a speech and saying something profound.”

Staley played for the Cavaliers from 1989-92, guiding Virginia to three Final Four appearances. She remains the only player in Atlantic Coast Conference history to have more than 2,000 points, 700 rebounds, 700 assists and 400 steals.

She also played eight seasons in the WNBA with the Charlotte Sting and later the Houston Comets. She was a five-time WNBA All-Star and was named to the league’s All-Decade team.

Staley finished her fourth season as coach of South Carolina in March after eight seasons at Temple.

‘When you’ve been removed from the game now (as a player) for six years, you kind of reflect on what you’ve done,” Staley said. “You always want to leave a legacy and I just felt like this is one of the highest honors you could ever receive for a lot of reasons. One, your body of work and what you’ve given to the game, your contributions to the game. Two, you look at the company you’re going in with and you’ve got to come up with you did something right.”

Roberts didn’t even know she could be inducted despite playing college basketball at Southeastern Louisiana. She is going in as a contributor.

“When I was first told, I thought they wanted me to emcee the event. I did,” Roberts said. “I emceed the first one so I thought they wanted me to do it again because I did a good job. They were like, ‘No, no no.’ You’re actually being inducted.’ I didn’t know I was eligible. That tells you it wasn’t on my radar screen.

“I wasn’t thinking about it at all, but when they told me that, it took me a moment. I had to digest it. I can now sign HOF ’12.”

McCray was a two-time All American at Tennessee during her college career from and a three-time WNBA All-Star. She now is an assistant coach under Staley at South Carolina. She said being inducted didn’t sink in until she arrived at the Hall of Fame on Friday, located close to where she played in college. (AP)