Dawn Staley speaks Sunday to fans at a Selection Show event at Colonial Life Arena.

Dawn Staley predicted her Gamecocks would be the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The tournament selection committee ultimately squashed that dream Sunday night.

South Carolina is still one of four No. 1 regional seeds, but the No. 1 overall seed belongs to UCLA this year. The Bruins (30-2) are the Big 10 champions and one of the three teams USC has lost to this year.

“My reaction? I mean, I’m not in the room,” Staley said after learning her team’s seeding. “Obviously I think we did much more than probably any other overall number one seed. We outdid ourselves, even from last year, with the amount of quality wins that we had. But I guess the committee was looking at something else.”

The Gamecocks are the No. 2 overall seed behind the Bruins.

She went as far to say South Carolina might consider changing how it builds its future schedules as a result of the snub.

“Obviously, it’s disappointing. It really is,” she said. “I’d like to get some feedback on how they came to that conclusion. Because we put together, we manufactured a schedule that, if done right, it should produce the overall number one seed.

“But I will say this: We’re going to make adjustments to our schedule in the future if the standard is the standard. If that’s the standard, then we can play any schedule and get a number one seed.”

The Gamecocks recorded a 16-3 record against Quad 1 opponents this year. Those 16 wins is the most of any team in the country. South Carolina also recorded seven wins against ranked opponents, the second-most in the country.

“I do think if you do the blind test and you put our resume against any other team in the field, I think you’ll pick us. That’s just plain and simple,” Staley said in an ESPN interview. “…We’ve got the most Quad 1 wins. If having more Quad 1 wins doesn’t supersede some of the hiccups that we had during the season, I don’t know what will. So for us, maybe we don’t put ourselves in a position where we have hiccups.”

UCLA held a 13-2 record against Quad 1 opponents this year and had eight wins against ranked opponents.

Two factors that the selection committee considers while making the bracket are head-to-head wins and competitiveness in losses. UCLA beat South Carolina 77-62 in November, and South Carolina’s worst loss this year was by 29 points to UConn. UCLA’s worst loss this season came by 13 points to Southern Cal.

“We get a chance to host and I hope we take care of business,” Staley said. “I hope we just put ourselves in a position to, to me, prove the committee wrong by getting back to Tampa. If we don’t get back to Tampa then the committee might have a say in it, which we don’t want them to have a say in it.”

Staley reiterated Sunday night her “gut feeling” heading into the selection show was the Gamecocks would be the No. 1 overall seed.

“My gut was the number one overall seed because we put the work in,” Staley said. “That’s what my gut gives me. But man says otherwise, and I don’t really put my faith in man. So we’ll play with it. We’ll play it. We’ll play the cards that we’ve been dealt.”

Despite her distaste with not having the No. 1 overall seed, Staley emphasized this is not extra bulletin board material for the Gamecocks.

“I’m gonna speak on it tonight, and it’s not gonna be a motivation for us moving forward,” Staley told ESPN. “It’s hard enough to win a national championship. We don’t need a chip on our shoulder.”