Why does South Carolina's Dawn Staley collect confetti? Tradition started in 2015

For the third time in the past seven years, Dawn Staley is being rained on with confetti.

And the South Carolina women's basketball coach has no issue with it, literally.

As the Gamecocks stood on the stage Sunday inside Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse as they received their national championship title — which commemorated the 10th time in women's basketball history a team went undefeated — Staley was first seen with her hands in the air taking in the moment before grabbing the confetti as it fell from up above and stuffing it into her pockets.

With the win, South Carolina not only won its third national title under Staley but also improved to 109-3 in the last three seasons. As for Staley, who became the first Black Division I women's basketball coach to lead a team to an undefeated season, the championship puts her in an elite class of Division I women's coaches with three or more NCAA titles. Staley is tied with Stanford's Tara VanDerveer. UConn's Geno Auriemma has 11, the late Pat Summitt earned eight with Tennessee and LSU's Kim Mulkey has four.

Here's what you need to know on why Staley has a love for confetti:

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Why does Dawn Staley love confetti?

The answer: It coincides with a memorabilia tradition of sorts that Staley and South Carolina have created over the years.

Staley, who was born and raised in Philadelphia, began the tradition in 2015 when South Carolina won its first SEC Tournament title under her tenure and it has carried over each of the Gamecocks' last seven SEC titles and now three national championships.

But what does South Carolina do with the confetti?

According to The State, the confetti — which is gathered by players, coaches and staff members during the team's trophy celebrations on the court and put into pockets, hats, etc. — is put into plastic Ziploc bags and brought back to Columbia and the South Carolina women's basketball offices.

Once the team, and the bags of confetti, return to Columbia, they are opened and placed around the trophy that the confetti represents in the Gamecocks' trophy case.

Following South Carolina's Elite Eight win over SEC foe LSU, Staley was showered with an entire water cooler filled with confetti by her players.

"I like confetti," Staley told ESPN's Holly Rowe after the game.

Now Staley and the Gamecocks will add to that collection with the confetti from Cleveland as it celebrates another national championship title.