If you’ve watched the No. 1-ranked South Carolina women’s basketball team, you might think the Gamecocks are a coach’s dream.

They’re anchored by veteran center Kamilla Cardoso. Te-Hina Paopao became the high-impact transfer guard USC needed. The bench is deep. This is a much-better outside shooting team than the one that lost in the Final Four last season. And, as usual, the Gamecocks defend, and they rebound.

A coach’s dream, yeah?

To hear coach Dawn Staley tell it, it was more of a nightmare in the preseason.

“Considering what it looked like in June, like, early retirement – I was considering it,” Staley said Sunday during “College GameDay.”

The show’s panel of hosts laughed as if Staley where a comedian telling a funny. Staley insisted she wasn’t.

Retire? Seriously?

“Seriously. Seriously,” she said of her contemplation.

Fortunately for the Gamecocks, Staley, 53, didn't walk away. She’s masterfully molded a team that returned no starters from last season and had to replace the majority of its production.

It's also fortunate for the sport that Staley remains on the sideline. Women's basketball has reached a popularity crescendo thanks in part to an improved product, highlighted by stars on the court and on the sideline. Within the SEC, top teams South Carolina and LSU take their cues from their coaches, Staley and Kim Mulkey.

When South Carolina and LSU played in Baton Rouge last month, the television audience peaked at 2.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched sporting event that night, outpacing the day's NBA games.

TOPPMEYER: Expand March Madness? No thanks. Hard pass on this bad idea.

DAWN STALEY: Why South Carolina coach says her team remains 'a work in progress'

In women's basketball, the coach makes the program, not the other way around. What's Tennessee done since Pat Summitt retired? Nothing special. Mississippi State tapered off after Vic Schaefer left for Texas.

What would South Carolina be without Staley? Not anything like this. Before Staley's arrival, the Gamecocks had never been to a Final Four. Staley has taken them there five times. Previously, she had a transformative effect as Temple's coach.

I can’t describe USC (25-0) as invincible, not after it nearly lost at LSU in January. Mulkey's Tigers possess enough talent to repeat as national champions, although they lack the cohesion they developed during last year’s postseason run. Other than LSU, I struggle to envision USC losing to anyone inside the SEC.

Elsewhere, several national championship contenders loom. Caitlin Clark makes Iowa a force. Southern Cal boasts a scoring machine of its own in freshman JuJu Watkins, who is good enough to make the Trojans a threat. In fact, the Pac-12 teems with teams that can make deep runs.

But, make no mistake, South Carolina will enter March as the clear favorite to capture what would be Staley’s third NCAA championship.

The Gamecocks navigated something resembling a rut their past two games – and still won each by double digits.

“We’ve been fortunate that we’ve learned lessons through winning," Staley said. "We don’t want to take a loss and learn a lesson.”

Considering how well Staley persistently recruits, you can’t say this is an underdog story. But, when you account for how much talent USC lost after last season and where Staley says this team was in the preseason, she sounds surprised her team is undefeated.

“They really weren’t in a good place (in the summer),” Staley said Sunday on ESPN.  “We lacked leadership. We lacked a lot of things. We lacked conditioning. We lacked discipline. But, once you start forming your habits, they picked up on them fairly quickly.

“It took a little longer than we wanted, but if I knew it was going to turn out like this, I probably wouldn’t have been as mad.”

Probably wouldn’t have considered retirement, either.

If the Gamecocks win the national championship, Staley would become just the fifth women's coach with at least three NCAA titles, a group that includes UConn's Geno Auriemma (11), Summitt (eight), Mulkey (four) and Stanford's Tara VanDerveer (three).

That's elite company, worth sticking around long enough to join.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

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This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Dawn Staley pondered women's basketball retirement. 'Seriously.'