Then-USC assistant coach Winston Gandy cuts the net after winning the the National Championship game at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio on Sunday April 7, 2024.
tglantz@thestate.com
When Winston Gandy took a job as an assistant coach on Dawn Staley’s coaching staff in 2023, she had one message for him: When he leaves Columbia, he will be a head coach.
“There was no pause, there was no uncertainty, it was very just matter of fact,” Gandy recalled to The State.
After two years with the Gamecocks — which ended in a national championship win and another title game appearance — Grand Canyon University named Gandy its head coach on March 24, 2025.
It’s been a “mad dash” in Gandy’s first seven months on the job in Phoenix, and his journey is bringing him back to Columbia for his first regular-season game as a head coach. South Carolina faces Grand Canyon in the teams’ season opener on Monday night.
“Listen, they were awesome,” Gandy said of his time in Columbia. “I met my wife there. It’s been a blessing for the man upstairs in so many different ways during my time there. So it’ll be really cool to get back, to see some familiar faces, obviously be a little weird coming in the other entrance, sitting on the other bench, and things of that nature. But really, really grateful for my time there.”
Winston Gandy, then a USC assistant, talks with Joyce Edwards (8) during the second half of action in the Second Round game of the NCAA Tournament at the Colonial Life Arena on March 23, 2025. Tracy Glantz tglantz@thestate.com
This will be the hardest game of the year for his Grand Canyon team, Gandy said. Scheduling South Carolina is a way to show his players what the standard for his program is.
In a way, it’s similar to what Staley did in the early days of her tenure at South Carolina, when she scheduled UConn. Those early games usually ended in blowout losses for the Gamecocks, but now South Carolina is a perennial title contender.
“You talk about things that I’ve kind of taken from Dawn, I think I’ve kind of mirrored that. Now, who knows if that’s gonna bite me in the rear end,” Gandy said with a laugh.
“But I’ll never forget this,” Gandy continued, “she was like, ‘If you’re trying to be the best, if you’re trying to elevate the level of a program, you’ve got to get out of your comfort zone, and you can’t worry about what everybody else thinks.’ Obviously for us, for some of our kids, they don’t have any idea what it looks like. So if you don’t have any idea what it looks like, sometimes you got to feel it, sometimes you got to see it, sometimes you got to be a part of it.”
Monday’s matchup between South Carolina and Grand Canyon is the first in a home-and-home series. Staley and the Gamecocks will make the trip to Phoenix for the 2027-28 season, according to the game contract obtained by The State via FOIA request this summer.
The hope, Gandy said, is that when South Carolina and Grand Canyon play in 2027 that his Antelopes will look like a “completely different team.”
“I think that’s the art of competition, and I think that’s part of the reason I’m here at Grand Canyon,” Gandy said. “When you talk about elevating the program, when you talk about — from an exposure [standpoint] — moving the needle for the program. Well, guess what? You’ve got to play teams. You got to be able to recruit and players nowadays want to play against good teams.”
Does Gandy have any nerves coaching against Staley — a three time national champion who has won 647 games in her 25 years as a head coach — in his first ever game as a head coach?
Maybe. But he joked he’s more worried about what he has to do in pre-game than what he has to do during the game.
“I’m a competitor, I want to be able to compete at a high level,” Gandy said. “It’s one of those things where Dawn’s a competitor too, from that standpoint. Maybe the ultimate one. So I think for me, I’m always learning. It’s an opportunity for myself, for our team, to see where we are and gain that perspective. Will I have nerves? I’m not gonna sit here and say I will not. For me, it’s not so much about the coaching part. I actually think that’s relatively easy for me. It’s always the pregame stuff.”
University of South Carolina Head Coach Dawn Staley talks with University of South Carolina Assistant Coach Winston Gandy during the first half of action in the Colonial Life Arena on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024 Tracy Glantz tglantz@thestate.com
Gandy will be leading a new-look team in his first year at helm of Grand Canyon. The Antelopes made their first NCAA Tournament appearance in program history last year but return just two players from that roster. Gandy added 14 new players this season, including Cincinnati transfer Chloe Mann, who was named the MWC Preseason Newcomer of the Year.
Grand Canyon was picked to finish No. 7 in the Mountain West Conference preseason poll, but did receive one first place vote.
The Antelopes will have to depend on players who have never been depended upon, Gandy said, summarizing his roster. Regardless, he’s hoping to see gradual improvement from his squad as the season progresses.
“The team that you see in November is going to be different from the team that you see in December, in January, and so on and so on,” Gandy said. “…In June, I was like, I don’t think we’re gonna win a game. And then in July, I’m like, we may win a couple. And then when they came back in August, you start preseason, you’re like, OK, we may be all right from that standpoint. So that’s my hope, from November to January, you’re like, ‘Man, I can’t believe that was that team in November.’
South Carolina vs Grand Canyon game info
- Who: No. 2 South Carolina vs Grand Canyon
- When: Monday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m.
- Where: Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, SC
- Watch: Streaming on SEC Network Plus
- Radio: 107.5 FM The Game; Sirius XM 106 or 190 and on the SiriusXM app
Michael Sauls is The State’s South Carolina women’s basketball reporter. He previously worked at The Virginian-Pilot covering Norfolk State and Hampton University sports. A Columbia native, he is an alum of the University of South Carolina.
