Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks ‘totally committed’ on defense — and on a historic pace
In the build-up to the 2019-20 season, much of the talk around South Carolina women’s basketball seemed to be about the offense. The year before, USC’s offensive rating was 25th in the country, well ahead of the defense, and the incoming freshman class was full of stars mainly known for their talent in putting the ball through the rim.
But after a 13-1 start that has taken USC to No. 4 in the country, the offense — despite ranking in the top 10 nationally in points per game and points per 100 possessions — has taken something of a backseat to the defense, which has improved even more dramatically.
“I feel like our team, our defense is really what people see about us,” freshman guard Zia Cooke said after the Gamecocks forced 30 turnovers in a win against Duke.
After ranking 215th in points allowed per game and 176th in points allowed per 100 possessions a year ago, South Carolina is 14th and eighth in those statistics, respectively.
“I don’t think we’ve changed as coaches how we approach the defensive side of the ball,” coach Dawn Staley said of the rapid improvement. “They’re pretty locked in, they pay attention to details, they actually listen, and they’re actually able to do. A lot of people can not listen and not do, but they actually do both.
“I go back to our leadership. (Senior guard Tyasha Harris) knows how we play defense. Ty knows how we played defense four years ago. (Senior forward Mikiah Herber-Harrigan) knows it. Now they’re playing with players who are totally committed to it. They don’t like to get scored on individually.”
Harris and Herbert-Harrigan were freshmen on that national championship team in 2016-17, the last Gamecock squad to rank in the top 25 in the country in defensive rating and points allowed per game, per Her Hoop Stats. But even compared to that year, this version of South Carolina is on a historic pace.
Just short of halfway through the regular season, opponents are shooting just 31.3% from the field — that’s fourth in Division I. The program record for a season is 34.6%, in 2013-14. In the Gamecocks’ only loss thus far, Indiana shot 50% from the floor, but no other team has exceeded 42% in a game.
Central to Staley’s philosophy is creating easy offense from defense with turnovers. South Carolina has accomplished that with 10.6 steals per game, which would be the most by a USC team in a season since 2006-07. USC also has 8.4 blocks per contest, which would be a program record if the Gamecocks can maintain it.
“I feel like since day one, we’ve known what our defense can do,” freshman forward Aliyah Boston said. “Because in practice we’re very competitive and we really do a great job of pushing each other.”
Over the last five games in particular, USC’s guards have upped the pressure and come away with 12.2 steals per contest. And they’ve done so while rarely resorting to zone defenses. Staley said earlier in the year that her staff was focusing on man defense as opposed to trying to teach the freshmen zone concepts, and that hasn’t changed.
“We haven’t (been working on zone),” Staley said. “But I’ll tell you, it’s a team in which if we decided to do it, they lock into whatever you ask them to lock into. And they may not execute it as perfectly as we design, but it won’t be from an effort standpoint and it won’t be from a not knowing standpoint. It’ll just be from probably over-helping or doing much. So we haven’t really worked the zone, and we got really better at man.”
NEXT
Who: No. 4 South Carolina (13-1, 1-0 SEC) vs. Alabama (10-4, 0-1 SEC)
When: 6 p.m. Sunday
Where: Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Watch: SEC Network
Listen: 107.5 FM in Columbia area
This story was originally published January 4, 2020 at 9:29 AM.
