Unbeaten South Carolina doesn’t plan to lose any time soon. It can’t afford to now
With one championship won, two more remain for the Gamecocks.
No. 1 South Carolina (29-0, 16-0 SEC) was awarded its seventh SEC regular-season trophy Sunday after its 73-63 win against Georgia at Colonial Life Arena.
The Gamecocks are the No. 1 overall seed in the upcoming conference tournament, which begins Wednesday in Greenville. USC earned a double-bye, so it won’t play until Friday.
Head coach Dawn Staley senses pressure coming for USC for three different reasons: Conference tournament time has arrive, the Gamecocks didn’t win it last year and they’re undefeated this season.
“We’re just going to forge ahead,” Staley said. “I don’t want to put on any more pressure to win than we already have. … This team is used to being in pressure situations, and they respond.”
South Carolina lost to Kentucky in last year’s tournament championship game on a last-second shot, a moment they believe, 35 games wins later, is a distant memory.
“What happened last year was what happened last year,” senior guard Zia Cooke said. “We’ve moved on already. So we’re just focused on, of course, winning it this year.”
The team has been consistent in its approach to stay focused on the task at hand. South Carolina’s non-conference schedule featured elite teams such as UConn, Stanford and Maryland — all on the road, and all resulting in wins.
USC swept its way through SEC play to keep its seat on the conference throne, with one win coming against then-No. 3 LSU at home. For the first time in program history, the team held a stainless record in the regular season.
But that undefeated record isn’t a security blanket for the Gamecocks.
“Definitely no relief,” senior forward Aliyah Boston said. “Now, we’re into the season where winning is the only option. You don’t say, ‘Oh well, something happened, we got the next game,’ because that’s not the case.”
The potential opponents that await the Gamecocks in the conference tournament are formidable.
South Carolina faces the winner of Arkansas and Missouri for its first game. The Gamecocks had no problem with those teams in the regular season, but both squads become dangerous when hitting outside shots.
The semifinal has a chance to get interesting, as USC could play Ole Miss or Mississippi State if those teams take care of business in the earlier rounds. The Rebels and Bulldogs are the only SEC teams to keep the game’s final margin under 10 points against South Carolina.
Ole Miss nearly defeated the Gamecocks in Oxford, but couldn’t close out the game in regulation and lost in overtime.
The conference championship could feature a rematch of the league’s top two teams, forcing USC to face LSU a second time. Tennessee, who had a much better showing than the Tigers against South Carolina, would be the next-most likely opponent for the title game.
These scenarios, of course, are all contingent on the Gamecocks taking care of business themselves.
All year, the landscape of women’s basketball has looked like “South Carolina vs. the field.” The reigning national champions have won games in nearly every way imaginable and in every setting possible.
USC has a perfect record but isn’t a perfect team — if such a thing exists. They struggle with outside shooting. They can be turnover prone at times. They’ve gotten out to slow starts on the road on a few occasions, finding themselves in 10-or-more-point holes.
But those things haven’t been enough for teams to beat them.
“I think sometimes we don’t allow ourselves really think about how good we are,” Staley said. “We don’t. We’re so worried about our opponents that sometimes, I have to stop and think and say, ‘They gotta worry about us. They have to guard us. They have to rebound against us.’ And you lose sight of really how good you are because you’re so on guard of what everybody else could do.”
South Carolina has lost just eight games since 2019, and haven’t lost since last year’s SEC championship game.
With the SEC and NCAA tournaments fast approaching, now is no time for the Gamecocks to stop that trend.
“Win, lose or draw, I think we’ll be who we are,” Staley said. “Losing isn’t something that we’ve done this year, so we really don’t know how we would respond to it. So I hope we’re not even faced with it. But I know this team understands the task that’s in front of them, and they stay current with that.”
Women’s basketball: Key dates
- March 1-5: SEC tournament in Greenville
- March 12: Selection Sunday, 8 p.m (ESPN)
- March 15-16: First Four games
- March 17-20: NCAA first and second rounds
- March 24-27: Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight games
- March 31: Final Four
- April 2: National championship
