Dawn Staley talks USC’s scheduling during COVID-19: ‘We’re losing so many big games’
The start of the college basketball season is now just six weeks away, and Dawn Staley still doesn’t know every opponent South Carolina women’s basketball will play this year.
Such is the situation practically every coach across the country faces because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But as full team practices officially started Wednesday, Staley did offer a little insight into how the scheduling process is working out at the moment.
At the moment, the Gamecocks are set to play in a tournament in November, though Staley declined to say which one. USC had originally been scheduled to participate in the inaugural women’s version of the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas over Thanksgiving — now, any tournament Staley’s team plays in will come just as games are allowed to start on Nov. 25.
“I don’t want to say which one it is right now because I hope by not saying it, it’s a go,” Staley said.
Under the NCAA’s new rules adopted for the 2020-21 season, the Gamecocks will be able to schedule 23 games outside of that tournament. The SEC has already said it will play its typical 16-game slate across 18 play dates. That leaves seven games to be scheduled, and Staley sounded eager to play as many of those as possible, though the NCAA only recommended a minimum of four nonconference opponents.
Who those opponents will be, however, could depend on other conferences’ decisions to expand league play and timing. South Carolina was set to finish a home-and-home series with Big Ten powerhouse Maryland this season, and the Gamecocks were also set to start a new series with Pac-12 champion Oregon.
Both those games were likely to be played early in the season. Now, Staley said, they’re off.
Two games that are still on the schedule for now, Staley said, are the matchups with national blue blood Connecticut and her former employer Temple.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who proceeded Staley as head coach of the U.S. women’s national team, has also said he thought the game with South Carolina is still on. Over the past few seasons, it’s typically taken place in the midst of conference play in February. Whether that will have to change this year is to be announced.
The status of USC’s annual rivalry game with in-state Clemson is also uncertain. Staley indicated Wednesday that the ACC, of which Clemson is a member, will expand its conference schedule this year, leaving programs with only a few nonconference slots left. South Carolina has also played ACC member Duke several times in recent seasons.
“They’re playing a 20-game conference schedule, so they’re only going to play four games outside of their conference. And, unfortunately, they don’t want to use one of those to play us. So we’ll have to pick up next year hopefully,” Staley said.
Staley later clarified that Clemson wanted to continue playing the series, which has taken place every season since 1976, and that discussions are ongoing.
“I don’t know if we got a date that would match up to that, but we’re trying,” Staley said.
As for the state of SEC play, Staley said she expected the league office to offer “a glimpse” of what the schedule will look like either later this week or early next week.
With the chaos surrounding scheduling at the moment and a most unusual season coming soon, Staley said that when it comes time for the NCAA tournament selection committee to consider resumes, they should keep in mind who teams wanted to play before COVID-19 disrupted things.
“We’re losing so many big games — the Maryland game, the Oregon game, all these games that we had set up — and for reasons that’s outside of our control, we’re probably gonna get penalized. I think there should be discussion on what the schedule was supposed to look like and check some boxes off when it comes us,” Staley said.
“And also you gotta look at past history. We’ve always played a tough nonconference schedule, and we very much wanted to do the same thing this season, just so we get control our own destiny. So the I think there should be some room for discussion for those teams that had a pretty good nonconference schedule that COVID got the best of.”
As for the Gamecock players, sophomore center Aliyah Boston didn’t sound too bothered by the fact of not knowing who she’ll be playing right now.
“We’re not really sure what schedule we’re looking at or things like that, but we know the start date of November 25, so we just keep working no matter what because we know something, something is going to come,” Boston said.
