South Carolina and coach Dawn Staley are back in the NCAA tournament.
Now, Staley and the Gamecocks want much more.
''For us, this is just part of our journey,'' Staley said Monday.
The Gamecocks (23-9) are returning to the NCAA women's basketball tournament for the first time since 2003. They were picked as the fifth seed in the Fresno region and will face Eastern Michigan (23-8) in an opening round game Saturday in West Lafayette, Ind.
If South Carolina gets past the Mid-Athletic Conference champs, it would face either Purdue or South Dakota State in the second round. Staley has only reached the second round twice in six previous NCAA trips as Temple's head coach.
This is Staley's first tournament appearance in her four seasons with the Gamecocks.
''Words can't really explain how we're feeling right now,'' said Markeshia Grant, South Carolina's leading scorer this season at 10.6 points a game.
There's been a lot of that for the Gamecocks this winter, the team's milestones spelled out on the back of T-shirts it gave to fans at its NCAA selection party. The team reached 20 wins for the first time since it last played an NCAA game nine years ago. It went 10-6 in the SEC, also the high-water mark of the past decade. There was also the Gamecocks' 64-60 victory over Tennessee last month, which ended a 40-game losing streak that spanned three decades.
''This has been so much fun,'' gushed athletic director Eric Hyman. ''I've loved every minute of it.''
It was Hyman who took some heat four years ago when he lured Staley away from her hometown team Temple with a salary package of $650,000. Some wondered how the school could pay that much - it was a higher salary at the time than national championship baseball coach Ray Tanner earned - for a sport that ranked way down the list in fan support.
Staley, the three-time Olympic gold medal winner, approached the task the only way she's knows - all out. She blitzed the community to drum up support and lured one of the country's top recruits in Kelsey Bone here. It looked like Staley would have to press the reset button after 2010 when Bone, the season's SEC freshman of the year, chose to leave for Texas A&M.
Staley kept fighting to turn the Gamecocks into winners. Notorious for her fiery, harsh words at practice, Staley backed off and gave players more support during drills.
The Gamecocks figured to struggle again this season in the difficult SEC with only two players on the roster at 6-foot-1 or taller. They finished with five victories over ranked opponents and led the SEC in scoring defense at just over 50 points a game.
The offense was led by speedy guards La'Keisha Sutton and Ieasia Walker, who often found Grant open for 3-point shots. Grant topped South Carolina with 55 field goals from behind the arc this season.
Staley told the several hundred supporters that South Carolina won't change its style now. The Gamecocks have never played Eastern Michigan before.
''In the next 24 hours, we'll know them top to bottom,'' Staley said. ''We're going to know what cereal they have in the morning.''
Sounds like vintage Staley, who starred at every level of basketball. She took Virginia to three Final Fours as the team's point guard. She played in the WNBA All-Star game five times. The 1996 U.S. Olympic team she helped to gold in the Atlanta Games was recently named to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
Staley, her players and staffed jumped and hugged each other when South Carolina's name popped up as the field of 64 was announced.
Staley was already planning for bigger things.
''This is the tip of the iceberg for us'' she said. ''We're going to be here, hopefully, every single year at this time.''
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