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Staley Quietly Emerges as Nation's Best Player

Dawn Staley may be the best women's basketball player in the country. Then again, she may not be. Only one thing's for sure: It isn't a major concern of hers. Virginia's 5-foot-5 all-American guard isn't one to spend time worrying about how the public perceives her. She's a self-described loner who, in no uncertain terms, expresses her dislike for interviews and conversations with strangers. "I don't do anything but play basketball and watch it," she said. Play it she does, and well. In fact, many think it was Staley's arrival from the Philadelphia playgrounds that set in motion the Cavaliers' rise into the upper echelon. On the court, she's a bundle of energy, spearheading a tenacious full-court press and running Virginia's fast-break offense almost flawlessly. This week, she will try to lead the Cavaliers to their first national championship. They will play Connecticut in the national semifinals Saturday in New Orleans. As a freshman, Staley was the Atlantic Coast Conference's rookie of the year. Last year, she was the only sophomore on the 10-player Kodak all-America team. This season, she was ACC player of the year and the consensus national player of the year. But as media representatives have besieged the Cavaliers -- who were ranked No. 1 almost all season, but now are No. 2 -- Staley has tried to stay away from interviews and other distractions. "It's something I would rather not deal with," she said. "I would rather have it so that other people on the team get the attention. But I think it's good for women's basketball, so I do it." "She doesn't want to take the credit for anything we do," said junior backcourt mate and roommate Tammi Reiss. "That's the great thing about Dawn. She doesn't like the attention. She would rather build someone else up." But Staley laughs when asked if she thinks of herself as shy. "Ask my friends," she said. "I'm not as quiet with them as I am when I'm with people I don't know." Staley led Philadelphia's Dobbins Tech High School to three Public League championships. As a senior, she was named USA Today's high school player of the year after averaging 33.1 points, 11.9 rebounds, 9.4 assists and 8.4 steals. She selected Virginia because of the opportunity to play immediately and the school's reputation for turning out great guards. One of six children, Staley is the first in her family to attend college. "Growing up, I didn't ever think I was going to go to college because, financially, my parents just couldn't handle it," she said. "When people started talking about college, that's when I really started taking {basketball} seriously and concentrating on the game as well as academics." Strangely enough, Sports Illustrated's preseason article on Staley made light of her academic history, questioning whether she was qualified to be at Virginia, citing her 790 combined SAT score. But what angered Staley was the paragraph that implied her high school was not capable of preparing her for a school with Virginia's academic reputation. "I wasn't really happy about the part they talked about my high school," Staley said. "It's all up to the student-athlete to get an education. I don't think they should be blaming my high school for low SAT scores." Reiss said it was that type of incident that has fostered Staley's wariness with the press. "When people try and pick at your weaknesses and capitalize on them, that's terrible," she said. "Dawn doesn't like that." On the court, however, her weaknesses are hard to find. After averaging 18.5 and 17.9 points her first two seasons, she decided to spread the offense around this season. While her scoring average has dropped to 14.2 points, she has averaged 5.9 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals. She also has two triple-doubles, both against North Carolina State. When the Cavaliers opened NCAA tournament play, Staley began to shoot more, in addition to seeing more time at point guard. In the Cavaliers' 74-72 second-round victory over Stephen F. Austin, she fed Heather Burge for the game-winning shot with four seconds to go. Her road show went through Austin, Tex., last weekend, as she set a Midwest Regional record with 12 assists in a semifinal victory over Oklahoma State, and matched that in the championship game over Lamar. She was an easy choice as the regional's most valuable player. Staley brought extreme confidence with her to Virginia. On her arrival, she didn't ask if the Cavaliers would get to the Final Four, but talked about when. That happened last season, when the 29-6 Cavaliers lost to eventual champion Stanford in the semifinals. But since this season her team held the No. 1 ranking virtually the entire regular season, Staley won't be satisfied with just making the Final Four. "Last year was a year in which we didn't really realize how far we could have gone," Staley said. But during the NCAA tournament, Staley's childhood friend, Loyola Marymount star Hank Gathers, died on court from a heart condition. In his honor, Staley wore Gathers's No. 44 on the back of her sneakers. Staley's loyalty toward friends also is exemplified by her complaints that Reiss and forward Tonya Cardoza don't receive enough media attention. "I think Dawn feels bad because she's an all-American, and she thinks that if she wasn't here, maybe we could be all-Americans," Reiss said. "Dawn needs to realize that she's our mainstay and that she needs to get the publicity." Staley now is often recognized on the streets in Philadelphia. She also is often the first player picked in otherwise all-male playground games. But that kind of recognition is fine with her. "Actually, it's kind of fun when it's like that," she said. "It's the media interviews and TV interviews -- that's what I dread the most."