Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks aren’t ‘the hunted’ as season starts. They like that challenge
Use whatever cliché you want.
The top dog. The hunted. The team to beat.
South Carolina women’s basketball is no longer any of those. LSU is. At least that’s what the 2023-24 preseason polls indicate. USC’s years-long monopoly on the No. 1 spot in both The Associated Press and SEC Media preseason rankings is over.
Coach Dawn Staley and her team knew this would happen. “The Freshies,” their national championship experience and undeniable chemistry are gone. LSU’s national championship trophy is only six months old.
But Staley has never shied away from a challenge. Not when she took the job at South Carolina — and not now.
“I’m excited for this team.,” Staley told reporters Thursday at the 2023 SEC Media Days event. “We’re in a position where we’re not the hunted, we’re hunting. That’s not a bad place to be.”
Veteran guards Te-Hina Paopao and Bree Hall define this team, ranked No. 6 in the preseason AP Poll, as one brimming with competitors. And while they may be young overall, they’re feisty, Hall said, and won’t shy away from anyone.
Paopao, new to the SEC after three years at Pac-12 stalwart Oregon, is already thinking about South Carolina’s game at LSU, which is just under 100 days away (Jan. 25 in Baton Rouge). The Gamecocks’ conference schedule begins Jan. 4 at the Florida Gators.
“(It’s) just a very physical conference, and there’s no break when you’re playing in the SEC conference. So I’m really excited about that,” Paopao said.
USC has six returning players: Raven Johnson (who started three game last year, more than any other returner), Ashlyn Watkins, Sania Feagin, Hall, Chloe Kitts and — most prolifically — reigning SEC Sixth Woman of the Year and Preseason All-SEC first team selection Kamilla Cardoso.
Keenan High grad and No. 13 recruit in espnW’s top 100 player rankings MiLaysia Fulwiley headlines the freshman class, which also includes No. 17 Kitts — who reclassified to 2022 and came to USC last fall — No. 25 Tessa Johnson and No. 40 Sahnya Jah. South Carolina also added Paopao and 6-foot-5 center Sakima Walker from Northwest Florida State College from the transfer portal. Walker was the 2023 NJCAA DI Player of the Year.
The biggest question marks surrounding this year’s squad are outside shooting and its lack of experience. Enter Paopao, who owns a career 38% three-point shooting percentage and shot 42.2% last season (14th best in the nation) and made 81 threes (37th in the country). Plus the Gamecocks bench led the NCAA in points scored (36.1 per game) last season.
“It’s not a rebuild for us because we’re very talented. We’ve got talent on our team. We just lack a little bit of game day experience,” Staley said. “I mean, half of our roster have played some high-level basketball. We just have to up their experience. We have to create that, assimilate that in practices so when the games come, it’s more natural for them.
“We could not put them in a better situation because of the players that we had in place.”
Exhibition game
Who: South Carolina vs. Rutgers
When: 1 p.m. Sunday
Where: Colonial Life Arena in Columbia
TV/stream: None
Admission: Free
2023-24 SEC preseason media poll
1. LSU
2. South Carolina
3. Tennessee
4. Ole Miss
5. Mississippi State
6. Arkansas
7. Georgia
8. Texas A&M
9. Alabama
10. Florida
11. Missouri
12. Auburn
13. Kentucky
14. Vanderbilt
