‘It’s good just to bring it back home’: South Carolina reclaims its spot atop the SEC
Exactly a year and two days before Sunday, the South Carolina and Kentucky women’s basketball teams faced off.
That game in 2019 in Columbia ended with score almost exactly the inverse of Sunday’s 67-58 South Carolina victory — Kentucky won 65-57. It also cost USC valuable ground in the conference standings, dropping coach Dawn Staley’s squad to 11-2 with Mississippi State a game ahead.
And as Carolina celebrated its 2020 regular season title Sunday with a win over UK, Staley cited that first matchup in reflecting on the difference between last year’s second-place finish and this year’s triumph.
“Kentucky was the one that really upended our chances of becoming even tied for the SEC championship,” Staley said. “That one hurt, you know. That one hurt because, quite honestly, I didn’t know that team could be where it was at the time. I didn’t think we could get ourselves to a point when we were even in the conversation.
“But that’s why it stung so much, that we worked so hard to get to that point and (to) have the kind of defeat that we had at our place was really upsetting.”
Whereas a year ago Staley said that an SEC title and Final Four were a bit beyond her own expectations for the season, this time was different.
“I didn’t even put goals on this team because I didn’t even know them,” Staley said of her mindset at the beginning of the year. “A large part of this team hadn’t played a whole lot of minutes for us at the beginning of the year. We have nine out of our 12 players are either a transfer, a freshman or a sophomore that really hadn’t played a whole lot of minutes for us.
“I knew what (senior guard Tyasha Harris) would bring to the table, I knew what (junior guard LeLe Grissett) would bring to the table, and (senior forward Mikiah Herbert Harrigan). But that’s just a fourth of our team. The other three-fourths of the team, how are they going to respond to playing in this league and playing the schedule that we have? You just don’t know. So you take it day by day.”
The media tabbed the Gamecocks as preseason favorites to win the SEC, while the league’s coaches picked them to finish second. But few expected USC to rise to the heights it has so quickly, with a No. 1 national ranking, 21 consecutive wins and a shot at the program’s second ever undefeated conference season.
It’s USC’s fifth regular season title in the past seven years, but first since 2016-17, the final crown in a run of four consecutive championships. That success is something the team’s eldest players remember, but one that’s been just out of reach in the past few years.
“It feels amazing, just because I was part of that history when I first came in here, and then I was part of the team that lost it, so it’s good just to bring it back home,” Harris said.
And after the heartbreak of last year’s Kentucky loss, this year’s victory even carried a little extra weight as Staley’s 300th win at South Carolina, a mark no other men’s or women’s coach at USC has reached.
“I think with all the former players that have dedicated their college careers to us here at South Carolina, they’re a part of that. So they’re a big part of why that happens. Our staff, they’re a big part of why that happens,” Staley said of the milestone. “I don’t really look at the amount of wins. I do like the fact that we’re regular season champions in the SEC, which is a tough conference, one of the best conferences if not the best. And when you’re the No. 1 team in this conference, it’s really saying something special.”
As the No. 1 team in the conference, South Carolina will headline the SEC tournament, taking place in Greenville starting on March 4. USC will be looking for its fifth tournament title in six years and a little more redemption after unexpectedly crashing out of the tourney last season in the quarterfinals.
WHEN DO THE GAMECOCKS PLAY NEXT?
Who: No. 1 South Carolina (27-1, 14-0 SEC) at Florida (14-12, 5-8 SEC)
When: 6 p.m. Thursday
Where: Stephen C. O’Connell Center, Gainesville, Florida
Watch: Streaming online on SEC Network Plus via WatchESPN
Listen: 1320 AM/107.5 FM in Columbia area
This story was originally published February 23, 2020 at 6:34 PM.
