Gamecocks ‘get back in swing of things’ after UConn loss, prepping for Missouri
South Carolina women’s basketball returned to the practice court in Columbia on Wednesday, putting in work for the first time since dropping a hard-fought overtime contest to national powerhouse No. 2 UConn.
And with just one day to prepare for their next game against SEC foe Missouri, the Gamecocks pleased coach Dawn Staley with their response.
“They’re focused. I mean, I don’t like losing, but I also like lessons that they can learn from only losing,” Staley said. “If you try to teach some of the stuff that we’re talking about today when we’re winning, it goes in one ear and out the other. So here was an opportunity for us to just get better. They’re very receptive to getting better, they’re not used to waking up hungover like we have been over the past two days. So to just to get back in the gym and get back in the swing of things, I think we’re ready to play Missouri.”
That defeat to the second-ranked Huskies will almost assuredly cost USC the No. 1 ranking in The Associated Press poll it retook Monday. But as Staley was quick to note in the immediate aftermath of the loss, it didn’t knock the Gamecocks out of first place in the SEC, and they’re still likely to be one of a handful of Final Four favorites come NCAA tournament time. It’s a point she reiterated to her players Wednesday.
“I think we’re a team in which, they take whatever day comes, and they try to win that. But I like for them to kind of look down the road just a little bit — not any opponent, not any one game, but just goals. You gotta feel your goals throughout your journey and your process,” Staley said.
The most pressing issue for Carolina is figuring out the offensive troubles it dealt with against UConn — it was those same issues that cost the Gamecocks in their only other loss so far this season, against N.C. State.
“I thought we defended well enough in both games, and you know both of them didn’t score for a whole lot of points, but neither did we,” Staley said. “ ... We have to make baskets. You look at the film, every starter that was in the game had an opportunity to impact the game. If they made two out of five buckets, we would be sitting here a little bit differently. But it’s good that they were in those situations to see that their contributions all help us.”
Those problems will have to be fixed quickly against a Missouri squad with a 7-7 record, but a recent history of spirited, even intense, matchups against the Gamecocks.
The Tigers can also lay claim to being perhaps the best .500 team in the country — they’re the only team without a winning record to have a net rating better than 10, meaning they outscore opponents by an average margin of 10 points per 100 possessions. And in all four of their losses to ranked opponents this season, Mizzou finished within six points, leading at some point in the fourth quarter in three of them.
“They’re gritty, you know, they know where they want their shots to come from. Their motion offense is pretty good, their cutting,” Staley said. “And then they force you to take outside shots with their sagging. They’ll press a little bit just to shave some time off the shot clock, to get you in a low shot-clock situation.”
NEXT USC BASKETBALL GAME
Who: No. 1 South Carolina (15-2, 10-0 SEC) vs. Missouri (7-7, 3-6)
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11
Where: Colonial Life Arena
Watch: SEC Network
