ESPN analysts: Gamecocks have best chance to upset No. 1 UConn

ESPN analysts discuss which Final Four team has the best chance to upset No. 1 UConn.

Rebecca Lobo

Women’s basketball analyst and reporter

“I would say South Carolina because they’ve already played them once this year. I think it’s hard to beat UConn when you haven’t played them in that season and you haven’t been out there with them and seen what works and doesn’t work. I think for that reason I would say South Carolina.”

Doris Burke

Basketball analyst and reporter

“My natural inclination is to lean towards Stanford only because historically Tara Vanderveer’s team, she has schematically come up with a good game plan. Her teams do a great job of following the game plan and executing. But from a purely talent standpoint I would say South Carolina. South Carolina without Alaina Coates is spreading the floor, playing four out, one in. They’ve got two dynamic wings in Allisha Gray and Kaela Davis. They’ve got arguably the best low post player in the country in A’Ja Wilson. And a point guard in Ty Harris who has played beyond her years. So from a talent standpoint I would say South Carolina. From a game strategy standpoint I could lean easily towards Tara because she’s historically had success.”

Holly Rowe

Reporter and play-by-play commentator

“The coach who has studied how to beat UConn the most is (Stanford coach) Tara Vanderveer. She has taken months of her life and looked at ways to beat them and that’s why she has disrupted the last two streaks. Does she have the personnel and the players? That I don’t know, but as far as preparation she has studied how to do it. South Carolina also. Mississippi State, I haven’t seen as much in person this year… But I think South Carolina’s close and they’re playing very differently than the last time they met UConn. I think they’re intriguing.

Kara Lawson

College basketball and NBA analyst

“South Carolina obviously has a lot of fire power and a lot of talent. I think they’re probably the team that has the most explosive scoring ability, like potential. Especially with the way they’re playing now, with the way Kaela is playing, with the way Allisha is playing. That would be the team that you would think, ‘Ok, if they’re able to get going.’ Because you’ve got to score to beat them… And the fact that South Carolina has A’Ja, she kind of presents a unique problem.”

Andy Landers

Women’s college basketball analyst

“I like the athleticism, the size of South Carolina as far as matchups go. When you beat good teams, as Connecticut has done, not just with South Carolina but others as well, there comes a time where that starts to weigh a little bit on you if you’re the winner. If you’re UConn. And there comes a time if you’re on the other end, the receiving end of those beatings, where you go, ‘Enough of this,’ and you bow up a little bit more and become a little more determined than you were.”

This story was originally published March 30, 2017 at 12:21 PM with the headline "ESPN analysts: Gamecocks have best chance to upset No. 1 UConn."