‘Familiarity’ can help South Carolina women’s basketball against UConn, Dawn Staley says
South Carolina got back in the win column Thursday night after dominating Florida 101-63 at home.
The turnaround from the Gamecocks’ previous loss was perfectly timed, given the No. 7 Connecticut Huskies are en route for a Sunday matinee matchup at Colonial Life Arena.
But just because South Carolina is scheduled to take on another Top 10 opponent this weekend doesn’t mean preparation changes for coach Dawn Staley and her team, she said.
“It feels like the preparation for all the games that we have to play,” Staley said Friday. “Is it a little bit extra special because of UConn? Maybe. But it’s very similar to our preparation for all of our big games.”
UConn comes into the game on a two-game win streak. The Huskies were in the midst of a 1 1-game win streak before losing to Tennessee last week.
South Carolina and UConn have played 13 times since Staley became the Gamecocks’ head coach in 2008. Staley said this year’s UConn is similar to Huskies teams of the past, but freshman Sarah Strong aids their offense. Strong, the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2024, is second in scoring for the Huskies with 16.1 points per game.
“They’re pretty talented, as always,” Staley said. “I think they get more of their stuff that they want to get. It’s less relying on just Paige (Bueckers) to do her thing. I think Strong gives them a lot of options because of our ability to score the ball, pass the ball and her IQ factors into what they do. So I don’t think it changes anything as to our emphasis, which is to disrupt their flow and their fluidity of their offense.”
The Huskies are led by the veteran Bueckers, who is all but a lock to be the No. 1 pick in this year’s WNBA Draft.
Bueckers, a multi-time All-American, leads UConn in scoring this season with 18.7 points per game. She’s played South Carolina four times (winning just once) and in those games has averaged 21 points and 4.25 assists.
Staley said having a roster full of players who have played UConn and Bueckers several times is a bit of an advantage when game time comes. “Familarity really helps,” she said.
“If you’ve played them before, you aren’t as amped up to make sure you’re doing the right thing all the time,” Staley said. “… When you have a seasoned group like we do, you feel good in knowing that maybe you don’t get all your stuff in, as far as all their actions, you’ll get some of them, but you’ll know where you need to be and what you need to communicate.”
UConn enters the matchup with the No. 14 scoring offense, No. 3 scoring defense and No. 1 team field goal percentage in the country. The Huskies are also No. 2 in the NET rankings, just behind South Carolina.
South Carolina is likely hoping to have a repeat performance of its production on the floor against the Gators.
“We just had to get back in the rhythm of things and the flow of how we are, “ Te-Hina Paopao said. “We just got to get back to our identity, and being disciplined and being the standard. And I think we kind of lost that in the Texas loss, and you got to learn from it, and I am pretty sure that we learned from it. So we’re really excited to play against UConn, and we’re just prepping and just taking one day at a time.”
This story was originally published February 14, 2025 at 4:53 PM.
