Reflecting on what could have been, looking to the future
“It will never grow old,” said Dawn Staley, as she walked the corridors of the Bon Secours Wellness Arena with the SEC’s championship net around her neck.
This was the opening scene of the documentary “For the Culture” of the 2019-20 season of the South Carolina Gamecocks, which they passed most of the ranking in the first place in the country.
“When you can do that at this conference, you can compete for a national championship,” she told the team on March 8 in the locker room in Greenville, South Carolina. “We’re not done yet.”
That was on March 8, and we all know what happens next: NCAA tournament canceled. Sporting events around the world are suspended indefinitely. Why the special now?
Dawn Staley said at WIS, a local TV station in Columbia, South Carolina, that his team was underreported and disrespected in terms of coverage, despite being the number one team in the country – and that’s how the special documentary came about. (To be fair, the local media covered the team like the beat it is, so it seems to be talking about the national media).
Here’s what we learned during the 1-hour special, which featured footage and interviews with Zoom, which aired on the SEC network:
Staley’s approach to freshmen and the 2019-20 season
The doctor returned to the Sweet 16 defeat of 2019 to Baylor, the Gamecocks were dominated by the final champions. In April, three players were transferred and grew up as a senior, and then Mikiah Herbert Harrigan entered the transfer portal.
The new recruiting class was No. 1 in the country and only three players were leaving (we all know now that Herbert Harrigan stayed).
“It wasn’t about replacing the statistics,” she said of the list changes. “It was about replacing culture.”
Staley said he was “confident and cautious” when it came to the team, because there were many unknowns.
South Carolina brought Felicia and Johnny Allen (from Felicia Hall Allen & Associates) as consultants to help them with “what drives success and what should be the role of each person to help drive and elevate their program”.
They noticed that Ty spoke, the companions bowed. “Ty was calm in the storm,” said Felicia Allen. “The freshman knew that they could trust her.”
There was an experienced leader at one point and another at the small striker, and Staley started three freshmen for the first time in the entire season.
It was the Maryland moment when she knew what the season would be like.
The team took off and found its own identity.
What really happened in the Virgin Islands
It was impossible, unless you paid a small fortune, to watch Paradise Jam games in November 2019, but the doc gave us footage of the Virgin Islands.
Aliyah Boston managed to return to his hometown, but found that his beloved teachers passed away. The next day, his whole family prepared Thanksgiving dinner.
In the first game of the tournament, the whole team played terribly, and that’s not an understatement – the little piece of footage showed this: Boston’s problems and visible emotions, Ty’s twists were the focal point of the flashback.
But the biggest moment was when Ty failed out of the game, meaning there was no one to command the ship for the Gamecocks in his absence. If they could, they would not be able with their experience and precision. Staley told her, “You have to make better decisions and be a leader for this team.”
This seemed to be the time for the change of season.
South Carolina won the jam after beating Washington State and Baylor (without Lauren Cox, was injured) by 15 points.
The next time they were really challenged, they lost the lead and were behind Mississippi State at home in the fourth period.
Ty calmed them down. Zia Cooke sealed the victory with an interception similar to football in an internal game. The Gamecocks maintained UConn with 2 points in the first quarter of the clash with the Huskies. South Carolina exploded in competition in the SEC game and in the tournament, and everyone was excited about what they would do in the postseason.
“I’m so sad that we didn’t see it culminate,” said Holly Rowe in the document via Zoom.
But, as Staley noted in the document, the season may not have ended in the way that anyone involved in the show may have wished, but the future is bright. Three freshmen have played throughout the season, sophomore Destanni Henderson – think 21 points from the SEC tournament against Arkansas – is paving the way as a starter and more.
“All the things we’ve been able to do this year, nothing changes,” said Cooke.
South Carolina’s place in elite women’s basketball has been solidified.
Even Carolyn Peck, Rebecca Lobo and LaChina Robinson said that this season marked South Carolina’s place “in the conversation (of) being basketball royalty”.
“Here at the University of South Carolina, we are creating a culture,” said Staley. “For the culture of women’s basketball.
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