When reality set in, Dawn Staley couldn't help but get emotional.
Can you blame her?
With a group of fierce competitors by her side, Staley accomplished what she'd dreamed about as a kid shooting hoops in Philadelphia.
"It's one of two opportunities that I saw women play when I was younger. National championship games and Olympics," Staley said Sunday. "Those were the things that I held dear and near to me when I was growing up, because those are the things that I wanted."
She'd been so close before, reaching the sport's biggest stage three times as a player and again as a coach in 2015, but her Gamecocks lost by a point in the Final Four, making Staley and her players even hungrier to cut down the nets.
For the last few years, Staley has been carrying a piece of a national championship net in her wallet. But it wasn't her net.
Before a broadcast a few years ago, former Purdue head coach Carolyn Peck gave Staley a piece of the net from the Boilermakers' title in 1999. Her only request?
"When you win your national championship, just return it," Staley said.
Staley said that Peck would be getting that piece of net back, and that she'd be passing on a piece of her own in hopes that the tradition can continue.
While Staley wants to continue the tradition of passing on the net, Sunday's victory is the culmination of a nine-year journey at South Carolina and the potential start of a new winning tradition. She had to build the program from the ground up, never losing sight of her goal despite starting her garnet and black journey with a 11-18 season.
"I never gave up on winning a national championship, no matter how hard it was, no matter what it looked like," Staley said.
But 25 years ago, she thought it was over. After losing in the 1990 Final Four and the 1991 title game, when Staley's Virginia Cavaliers walked off the court as losers in the 1992 Final Four, she thought that was her last shot.
"When I couldn't get it done in college, I thought that was it. I never wanted to be a coach. I never wanted to be sitting where I'm sitting," Staley said.
But the late Dave O'Brien talked her into it, getting her to take the helm at Temple while she still played in the WNBA. It took 17 years of coaching, but she finally got what she always wanted.
Like they always say, good things come to those who wait.