Everything Dawn Staley said after South Carolina women’s basketball advanced to the Elite Eight..
Everything Dawn Staley said after South Carolina women’s basketball advanced to the Elite Eight
South Carolina women’s basketball advanced to the Sacramento Regional 4 at Golden 1 Center final against the winner of No. 10 seed Virginia and No. 3 seed TCU on Saturday. The Gamecocks avenged a regular-season loss to the No. 4 seed Oklahoma Sooners with a dominant 94-68 victory in the Sweet 16.
Here is everything head coach Dawn Staley had to say after the win.
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Opening Statement
“First, I want to congratulate Oklahoma on a great year. We’re very fortunate/unfortunate that we at least have an SEC team in the Elite Eight, at least one. Actually, we’ve got Texas, right? Is that it? For right now?”
“Okay. So, I mean, I attribute us advancing to just playing in the type of league that we play in. It prepares you. It prepares you to be able to continue to advance. It is unfortunate that we end up having to play one of our very own. The good thing about it is that one of us will be representing the league in the Elite Eight.”
After the guards gave you the hot start, there were quite a few possessions where y’all took it deep into the shot clock and then somebody else would hit. Was that by design or necessity?
“By design. I think when we have advantageous basketball, we need to play what’s given to us, and if we don’t, then we want to just be a little bit more patient, see if we can get a couple of reversals and get maybe some easier looks, because a lot of times defenses are a little impatient. If you can wait a little bit longer, you can get cleaner looks, and everybody feels good because they’ve touched the ball.”
In a moment like this, for Raven Johnson to have a game like this and her leadership. How much has she meant to this group, and her ability to lead in moments like this, because she’s been here a million times?
“I mean, I’m super happy for Raven. Raven’s been through a lot. She’s standing strong today, and she’s performing at a high level, which we all know she was capable of playing at this level. But she sacrificed a lot of her beginnings and actually some of her end of her South Carolina career by just being a giver, by just being a winner and making winning plays.”
“Fortunately for us, we need her to score. We really do need her as a part of taking really good shots. I think the game has slowed down for her enough to where she knows where she needs to implant herself in scoring the basketball for us.”
“And today was just beautiful to see, just her taking those shots. Because the time she’s had a core group of players, like the Kamillas and like the Freshies, like when she’s had those groups of players, she was probably the fifth option. And she didn’t mind being the fifth option. She’s probably option number two or three in the depth chart of getting shots. But she can manufacture her own shot at this point.”
“So I’m just happy she played efficiently. She’s leading, I mean, she’s leading beyond the game. She’s leading in shoot-around. She’s leading at the hotel because she wants to win. And she wants everybody to all be on the same page and have that winning attitude.”
How would you categorize Madina Okot’s impact on this game, especially with the tough match-up inside she had?
“You know, Madina, to me, is probably one of her stronger games just from a mental standpoint. The last time we played Oklahoma, she was on a mental struggle bus. It was the whole pressure of playing for us and having to perform at a high level for us. She didn’t get the points that she probably wanted to get. But the rebounding, she’s able to turn a page and know that her contributions in other areas help us win.”
“I like where she is right now. I like the fact that she just wants to win. She’s Raven’s roommate for a reason, and she’s starting to just talk like Raven about just making an impact and just wanting to win.”
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Seemed like you have such a good balance where your kids play hard, they’re disciplined, they take it seriously. But you have fun wearing Raven’s shirt. How do you balance that? And is it healthy to have some fun when it’s so serious too?
“I mean, it is. I mean, they’re young people that have a lot on their plate. They have a lot of people coming at them wanting things, right? They want things. I think for us and how we’ve operated at South Carolina, we just gotta prioritize and we’ve got to compartmentalize. There’s a place for everything that you want to do. It’s about prioritizing.”
“For me, they probably call me a little bit of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde because I give each moment its place. If I feel like laughing in the middle of practice, I’m going to crack up, right? But I can turn it off to get back into where we were. I think they’ve probably taken a little bit out of that. Like, I want them to be who they are, you know? It’s not always [about] being serious. It’s not always [about] being in the gym. There’s a balance to everything we do. We just try to prepare them for life, and life isn’t just one-dimensional.”
Your players are saying how there’s still a next level, still room to grow. The point differential you put up against your opponent so far is quite a large one. Where do you see room to grow as you head into the Elite Eight, and where do you want to see your players improve?
“I’d like for us to be a little bit better at putting the ball in the paint and scoring. We’re used to having a dominant post that can alleviate some of the pressures that are happening, especially in the half-court. I think we can be more patient offensively. Like for better looks. If the paint is crowded, no need to put that ball in one of our bigs’ hands for everybody to collapse on them.”
“If we let the offense run a little bit more, they could probably get easier looks where there’s maybe not two and three sets of hands digging at the ball, it’s just one. And you can play a little bit better, efficient basketball when you’re just dealing with one person.”
We saw a huge improvement in the 3-point shooting today as opposed to the last couple games. What fueled that improvement? How can you sustain it going forward?
“We got some good shooting in here. We took the shoot-around today. We practiced [for] an hour yesterday. And we really just wanted to make sure that we can break the balls in, and we can understand how that ball’s coming off the rim.”
“I mean, we had a new smell. The gym was new. The floor was new. And our coaches do a really good job at staying routine and the type of shots that we get in the game. And we were able to do that twice over the past couple of days. And I thought it really helped us.”
Want to test your memory about when you played here back in the day against the Sacramento Monarchs. What do you remember about the atmosphere at that time and during your playing days?
“I mean, this was one of the arenas that really got loud. That really actually created a home court advantage to the point of, you guys had a really great team that you won a WNBA championship. So when you can create a home court advantage, you create opportunities for you to win and win big. So I do remember it being rocking in here when I played, and that was a really long time ago.”
No changes are expected for either team. Chloe Kitts and Adhel Tac are out for South Carolina.
TCU’s injury report is longer. Sarah Portlock, Maddie Scherr, Aaliyah Roberson, and Emily Hunter are expected to be out. Taliyah Parker was listed as out for the first and second round games. She was not on the availability report for Saturday’s game against Virginia, but did not play.
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2. Guarding Olivia Miles
Almost everything TCU tries to do runs through point guard Olivia Miles. If you can limit her effectiveness, you are probably going to win. Everyone knows that, but few have been able to do it.
South Carolina can counter Miles with defensive specialists Raven Johnson and Agot Makeer, but it will be an entire team effort. Yesterday, I broke down how the Gamecocks plan to do that.
3. Keep the intensity
South Carolina was hyper-focused against Oklahoma on Saturday. They were ready for everything Oklahoma tried to do with an effective counter, and players were locked in to the Sooners’ unique style of fast, physical basketball.
South Carolina needs that same intensity and focus on Monday, and maintaining a high level of play is something South Carolina didn’t always do this season.
Most notably, after beating Texas in January, South Carolina lost its next conference game at Oklahoma. Players later conceded they weren’t as focused as they needed to be. In the SEC Tournament, the Gamecocks beat the LSU Tigers in the semifinals in an epic game, and then came out flat against Texas in the championship game.
That’s why Dawn Staley’s message in the days between the second-round win over Southern Cal and the rematch against Oklahoma was that the Sweet 16 was not about getting revenge. It was one step on the road to the Final Four, and there would be another step two days later.
South Carolina was loose on Sunday. Tessa Johnson grabbed a mic from one of the TV stations and interviewed her teammates, then ran a game of hangman for the media. Joyce Edwards tried (and failed) to squeeze in a nap. Adhel Tac gave her first extended interviews of the postseason. Maryam Dauda and Tac assisted in the game of hangman.
But they also seemed to be focused. Edwards broke down the game plan in detail (without giving away any specifics). Raven Johnson and Agot Makeer dissected Olivia Miles’ game.
The Gamecocks have been so focused that Staley canceled one of the scheduled practices on Friday. That level of focus appears to have continued.
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“I know my team enough to know, hey, they’re ready, too,” she said on Sunday. “You could tell by the days, the prep days that occur prior to us playing, and they’ve been good. So you actually listen to your players, and you get to know the pulse of your team in order for you to make adjustments like that.”
4. It’s late, y’all
Monday’s game tips off after 9:00 pm in the Palmetto State. That’s a much more reasonable 6:00 pm in Sacramento, but that still makes for some long days for the Gamecocks.
If the Gamecocks win, they’ll advance to the Final Four in Phoenix. That means another week being three hours behind the East Coast. (Phoenix is in the Mountain Time Zone but does not observe Daylight Saving Time, so it is effectively on Pacific Daylight Time right now.)
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To combat jet lag and the long days shuffling between the hotel, press conferences, and different basketball courts (teams practice at both the host arena and an off-site arena), sports performance coach Molly Binetti came up with a simple solution.
“(Binetti) does things that will help our bodies to adjust, which is they’ve gone on walks when we got here. And they’ve gone on walks on days in which we didn’t play, just to get their bodies adjusted,” Staley said. “If not, they would lie in bed, like, all day. And you really can’t do that. But they’re young. They listen. They want to win. They’re listening more now during this stage of our season than any other time, because they want to win and they want to lock in, which is good and helpful. If we were just playing in any other tournament throughout the season, they would not want to go on the long walks. They would not. But since they also are confined to the hotel, getting some fresh air is welcomed.”
5. Scouting the Horned Frogs
Miles is TCU’s undisputed leader, but she is not the only Frog to worry about.
Marta Suarez, the Tennessee transfer, scored a career-high 33 points against Virginia and is averaging 17.3 points and 7.4 rebounds this season. The 6-3 forward is a three-level scorer who is hitting just under 38% from three.
6-0 guard Donovyn Hunter gives TCU size and athleticism on the perimeter, and averages 10.3 points. 6-7 Kentucky transfer Clara Silva averages 9.2 points and 7. 5 rebounds, plus blocks 1.8 shots per game. Taylor Bigby averages 8.2 points and is the floor spacer, hitting 39% from three.
South Carolina tried to slow the pace against Oklahoma, but on Monday, the Gamecocks will try to speed things up.
“They play at a slower pace,” Staley said. “They control the tempo. And somehow we need to speed that up, whether that’s through pressure or some other way of doing things. So we’re up for the challenge.”
Mark Campbell said that because of the quick turnaround between games, TCU won’t try to do anything new against South Carolina. The Horned Frogs will just try to do what they do best.
“This one is such a quick turnaround. We get one film session today and a walk-through, and then we get one more walk-through tomorrow,” he said. “On the second game, it’s such a quick turnaround, you’ve just got to be the best version of your team. You want your team to be incredibly confident. And then you’ve got to go play. So I think there’s a huge difference in preparation of game one versus preparation of game two in how you approach it. And it is a very short window to turn around and play.”
