COLUMBIA – She never got used to it and hopes she never will.
“Last year, we had already done it,” said South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley. “I’m looking forward to seeing how this team tackles this, how it performs on the road against a really good basketball team.”
“It” is the SEC’s regular season championship, which will be picked up by the No. 5 USC winner at No. 3 Texas A&M on February 28. Defending champion Gamecocks is looking for his sixth title in eight years.
It was already expected at this point, after the 2013-14 Staley team brought home the first and started a series of four in a row, before the state of Mississippi overthrew them in 2018 and 2019. The Gamecocks returned to the throne last season with a 16 0 league season, and were gearing up to become the first SEC team to post perfect consecutive years to the SEC until they lost in Tennessee on February 18.
In the way the Aggies played this season (they beat eight teams in the Top 25), February 28 would still have scored a title shot, even if the Gamecocks had beaten the Lady Volunteers. The USC have won their last two games, but in a very different way than in the past, notably without focusing on the All-American Aliyah Boston center and letting other players score.
This plays on the reasons why Staley would never discount a championship shot, even though she had done it hundreds of times before. She knows how difficult it was to reach this point, a six-year journey of 10 wins in 2008-09 to 29 in her first season in the championship.
In addition, many expected this team to be here with this chance, but not many thought that Gamecocks would look as inconsistent as they seem. They still won and won a lot, but their attack remains a work in progress and it doesn’t seem as close to guaranteed as the others.
However, here they are. Again.
Staley refused to “shake up” the team in practice before leaving for Texas, seeing similarities with his other title teams. “Most of the champion teams that we participate in, they look at each game as it is,” she said. “This team has been very nice. This team is one that just takes what is given. I don’t know if shaking them is what would move them. “
It’s unique that his other teams have won at least a title tie or seed number 1 in the SEC tournament that comes with it right now. In 2014 and 2015, Gamecocks had it in the penultimate game, while in 2017, they officially picked it up on the last day. Last year and in 2016, the USC won three games before the end.
This year, if the USC loses, there is still a small chance that the Gamecocks will still win the title. The Aggies had a game against Missouri postponed due to weather conditions in Texas, and if they played a makeup game and lost, USC and Texas A&M would have two losses each.
Draws are not divided for title scenarios, so each would be credited as a champion. But A&M would still be the number one seed in the tournament.
It is also highly doubtful that A&M will agree to invent this game, as there is little time to schedule it between February 28th and the start of the tournament on March 3rd.
Gamecocks are naturally not talking about this. They don’t want to hear about a runner-up scenario, everyone wins a trophy.
They are going to Texas to win. It will be the first Top-5 match in the history of the Reed Arena.
“That was the goal, to begin with. That’s what all the hard work is for, ”said owner Zia Cooke. “This is definitely what we were hoping for.”
Follow David Cloninger on Twitter @DCPandC.