South Carolina women's basketball alum becomes Division-I head coach

South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley has a growing coaching tree. Former Gamecock players and assistants continue to make waves in the coaching world. On Thursday, a report surfaced that another former Staley disciple was making an upward move.

Per a report from USA Today’s Mitchell Northam, former Gamecock guard Olivia Gaines will be the next head coach at North Carolina Central.

Gaines, who spent the last two seasons as the head coach at Allen University in Columbia, will be taking her first Division-I head coaching gig with NC Central.

She has made other head coaching stops at Richard Bland College, USC-Salkehatchie, Andrew Jackson High School, Fort Dorchester High School, and Cross High School. Gaines was also an assistant at Georgia Southern, Vassar College, and Northwestern Oklahoma State.

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Gaines, a South Carolina native, played at Chester High School before spending two seasons at Louisburg College in North Carolina. She dominated at that level, earning Junior/Community College Player of the Year honors from the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.

Then, Gaines spent two years in garnet and black. She was a part of Carolina’s first 30-win season and helped the Gamecocks to Sweet 16 and Final Four berths. The run to the 2014-15 Final Four was the first in program history. Gaines made a key contribution in the Sweet 16 win over North Carolina, making a game-tying 3-pointer in the final 90 seconds of the game.

USC earned NCAA Tournament No. 1 seeds in both 2013-14 and 2014-15, the first such instances ever for South Carolina.

Gaines logged a trio of starts during her Gamecock career. When she came off the bench, she backed up familiar names like Tiffany Mitchell, Khadijah Sessions, and Asia Dozier.

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