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Mechelle VoepelESPN.com
At the break of Sunday’s LSU game, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley’s mind was racing. Her Gamecocks only lost two points, but from rhythm to performance, she didn’t like what she saw. In the locker room, she made strategic adjustments and needed the full Gamecocks buy-in.
And after the 69-65 victory, Staley didn’t care about winning narrowly. She focused on how her players reacted to a game that could have escaped.
“I am very proud of our team for being able to make these adjustments,” said Staley. “It means that they are growing.”
This has been a requirement for Gamecocks, who are led by Aliyah Boston’s second-year core, Zia Cooke and Brea Beal, after losing two starters who were chosen in the first round of the WNBA. South Carolina, which came in fourth (12-1), is the No. 1 seed projected for the NCAA tournament and at the top of the SEC once again with 7-0 going to Thursday’s game in the State of Mississippi No. 21 (ESPN / ESPN App, 19h ET) But Gamecocks are really still growing.
“They are not a team that falters, even with mistakes,” said Staley. “They believe in themselves as a unit. I’m probably a lot tougher with them in games like this than they are used to. But sometimes you have to get people out of the mess they are in, so that they can see something a little different. . “
It’s hard to connect funk to anything about a team that’s 44-2 going back to the start of the 2019-20 season. Still, it’s consistent with what Staley always said: Sure, Gamecocks are good. But she wants them to have a better national championship caliber. The pieces are there.
South Carolina went 32-1 and finished first last season with Boston, a striker, and Guards Cooke and Beal starting out as freshmen. With point guard Tyasha Harris and striker Mikiah Herbert Harrigan going to the WNBA, the sophomore trio has a lot on their shoulders, but also a lot of help. Juniors Destanni Henderson (guard) and Victaria Saxton (striker), senior striker LeLe Grissett and striker Laeticia Amihere have moved into higher positions.
The 6-foot-5 Boston already looks like the cornerstone of the future WNBA franchise, much like its predecessor Gamecocks A’ja Wilson. The start of the Boston season was trivial by its standards, but its numbers have increased since the SEC game began. His 28 points against Florida on New Year’s Eve doubled his best non-conference game score.
Last week, Boston averaged 20.7 points, 13.7 rebounds and 5.7 blocks in wins over Arkansas, Georgia and LSU. She had her second triple-double career in the Georgia game.
South Carolina @aa_boston wreaks havoc on the defensive end of the floor. How does she do that? Let’s go to the videotape. (Magic video courtesy of Mike Kataja.) pic.twitter.com/UC3A4BvdqD
– Rebecca Lobo (@RebeccaLobo) January 27, 2021
Staley thinks that non-conference opponents of the Gamecocks place an emphasis on occupying the Boston space. She dealt with it to some extent when she was a freshman, but not so much.
“She wasn’t used to seeing all the traffic,” said Staley.
As a result, Boston worked on making small adjustments with footwork and movements when she is in the painting, but also using a medium-range jumper and even the 3-point jumper (she is 7 of 23 behind the hoop). She is ready for every game for a big workload.
“I definitely think my conditioning has come a long way,” said Boston. “I have really focused only on being more dominant.”
Beal had the highest mark of his career with 17 points at Vanderbilt on January 14, then topped that with 22 against Arkansas on January 18. The score was not the main measure for Beal, a 6-1 multipurpose guard, but she averages 9.1 PPG. Staley said that his punctual production makes a big difference to the success of Gamecocks.
“I am learning many things: it is a game within the game,” said Beal. “We hear that from the coach all the time. It’s easy for me to score when you’re doing defensive things, little things, rebounds and rebounds. You don’t have to score in one on one and in moves; you just get as easy as possible.”
Things looked easy for Cooke in the first part of the season, as she scored double digits in the first eight games, averaging 18.8 PPG. But when the defenses started to attack her, she went into a kind of shooting crisis. In the past two games, however, she has returned to double-digit scoring.
“People are plotting for her,” said Staley of Cooke, who has a team average of 15.5 PPG. “They know that when she touches the ball, a kick is going up somehow. And it occurred to me against LSU: with the half-court move, she is pushing. She is using the wrong angle to try to score. I am showing her to go on a more direct drive. “
The versatility of the Gamecocks on guard allows them to move Henderson to the wing and get Cooke to run the edge, which was the great strategic adjustment that Staley made in the interval when he won the LSU.
Henderson showed flashes of brightness as a sophomore, but she stood out this season. One of the fastest players in the country with the ball, Henderson has an average of 12.5 points and leads Gamecocks in assists with 5.9 per game.
Saxton (10.1 PPG, 6.3 RPG), Amihere (6.9, 5.3) and Grissett (6.8, 4.9) had their moments, and with their length – everyone is 6-2 or more high – can be disruptive in defense along with providing important scores.
The worst moment for the Gamecocks this season came on December 3 against NC State, with a 54-46 home loss that took South Carolina out of the top spot for the first time since January 2020. The defeat – especially for a team that is now projecting itself as a number 1 seed – it wasn’t what bothered Staley the most.
The Gamecocks had played very casually, did not respond to what she was saying and seemed not to understand.
“I told them what I was worried about before the game, but it didn’t occur to me,” recalled Staley. “I can handle the loss; I can’t handle the loss like we did. But it’s something we needed.”
The defeat ended up being one of the best things that happened in South Carolina.
“They have been very trainable,” said Staley of the result. “They listen and try to do what you want them to do. But then they lose some of that discipline, because we have no one on the ground who can reinforce it, because we are very young. We as a technical team have to be these leaders. “
Staley is hopeful that more of that leadership will come from players she says are now likely to be very good with each other when they need to be strict. But that is also part of the growth.
Gamecocks defeated three of the other six SEC classified teams, with three more on the horizon. Next is Mississippi State, where former South Carolina assistant Nikki McCray-Penson, Staley’s longtime friend and former US basketball buddy, is the head coach. After spending the past three seasons at Old Dominion, McCray-Penson took over from Vic Schaefer, who left for Texas.
The state of South Carolina-Mississippi has become one of the main rivalries of the SEC, although the Bulldogs have not been very successful recently against the Gamecocks. In the past 10 years, South Carolina has 14-3 in the series, including victory in the 2017 national championship.
McCray-Penson was on the Gamecocks sideline for this. Now she will try to give South Carolina its first regular season conference loss since March 3, 2019, when the Gamecocks crashed in Mississippi. (They also lost to Arkansas in the SEC tournament five days later.)
“I know Nikki so well. Nikki wants to hit the brakes, ”Staley said, laughing. “And I want to end it. We are so competitive. But it’s bittersweet to be used to being together. Seeing her in this position as our rival at the conference? Very strange.
“But I’m looking forward to hearing you scream and scream and do all those things that used to hit my right ear for nine years. But now they mean the exact opposite. They are trying to hit us.”
South Carolina faces UConn in Storrs, Connecticut, on February 9. The Gamecocks beat the Huskies last season for the first time.
“I personally like that, because Connecticut has been very good for a long time,” said Staley of facing the Huskies. “If you’re lucky enough to make it to the Final Four, it helps to have played before. I think it’s great for women’s basketball and great for them. And it will help us.”