Going to Sweet 16, USC wary of No. 11 seed Buffalo: 'I'm not deeming them Cinderella'
Don't tell South Carolina women's basketball that it's in the Elite Eight just yet.
Sure, the Gamecocks are set to play No. 11 seed Buffalo in the Sweet 16 on Saturday and have a 75 percent likelihood of winning, per FiveThirtyEight.
But as senior forward A'ja Wilson pointed out Wednesday, once teams reach the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, blowouts of any kind become increasingly rare, and the 29-5 Bulls likely will have a supportive crowd at their backs in Albany, just a few hours from their campus.
"Around this time of year, anything can happen. So it could be a 2 seed, it could be an 11 seed, it really doesn't matter," Wilson said
Then again, USC was in a similar position last year, facing No. 12 seed Quinnipiac in the third round, and that turned into a rout, with the Gamecocks winning 100-58.
Still, coach Dawn Staley says she and her team can't afford to rely on the Quinnipiac win to reassure themselves that they'll be OK. Buffalo might be an 11 seed, but it already has upset two ranked teams — South Florida and Florida State — this tourney, both in their own state and both by 20 points or more.
"They play hard, they're unselfish, they know where they want their shots to come from," Staley said, summarizing her opponent's strengths. "They stick with that. They don't go outside of who they are to try to make plays. They know exactly where each and every player is effective, and they put those players in those positions."
Accordingly, over the past few days USC has focused on making sure its players, especially its younger players, are locked in and won't make careless mistakes, such as the turnovers that have plagued the team throughout the latter stages of this season.
"The intangibles are going to be key, so we're locked in on making sure we get loose balls, making sure we make hustle plays, making sure we understand what we need to do and make sure we don't have any large mental breaks," Staley said. "There's going to be some breakdowns, we just can't have them in large portions of the game."
Buffalo is one of two 11 seeds to make it the final 16 — fellow MAC member Central Michigan surprised Ohio State in the second round and will face Oregon on Saturday. It's only the third time two teams seeded that low have advanced to the Sweet 16 since 1994, when the tournament expanded to 64 teams, and only the second time both of those low seeds have come from mid-major conferences.
"I was at a mid-major and could never get over the second-round bug. Obviously these double-digit seeds, they got talent, they got levels of talent, they got depth, and that's what it takes for you to advance to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament," Staley said.
The Bulls' success speaks to the parity in the game, Staley said, but it also means she doesn't see them as a feel-good story that got this far on luck.
"They play extremely well together, they play hard for 40 minutes, so regardless, I'm not deeming them Cinderella, I'm deeming them a team that could beat us, that's a threat to beat us, like any other team across the country, and we're going to approach it that way," Staley said.
And conversely, Wilson said, Buffalo's wins against highly ranked opponents reinforces the message Staley sent to the team after it struggled to put away No. 15 seed North Carolina A&T in the first round: When March rolls around, how you win matters less than simply winning at all.
"It definitely puts it into perspective for us to know, even though they're saying we're not really playing our best basketball or playing our best, we're still in it," Wilson said of the tournament's upsets. "There are a bunch of other teams out there that would love to still be dancing. Just to have the opportunity to continue dancing, no matter where we're dancing or who we're dancing with, it's a blessing."
SWEET 16
Who: No. 2 seed USC (28-6, 12-4 SEC) vs. No. 11 seed Buffalo (29-5, 16-2 MAC)
When: 11:30 a.m. Saturday
Where: Albany, New York
TV: ESPN
Radio: 107.5 FM in Columbia, South Carolina, Gamecock Radio Network everywhere else
This story was originally published March 21, 2018 at 7:15 PM with the headline "Going to Sweet 16, USC wary of No. 11 seed Buffalo: 'I'm not deeming them Cinderella'."