David vs Goliath: How No. 16 seed Tennessee Tech is preparing for South Carolina
When Tennessee Tech takes the floor at Colonial Life Arena Friday afternoon it will be attempting a near-Herculean task: The No. 16 seeded Golden Eagles will try to upset No. 1 seed South Carolina.
It’s a feat that just one team has accomplished in the history of the women’s basketball NCAA Tournament. That honor goes to No. 16 Harvard, who beat No. 1 seed Stanford 71-67 in 1998.
“We understand the challenge ahead, we understand the assignment ahead,” Tennessee Tech head coach Kim Rosamond said Thursday. “We understand what a great opponent we’re going to be facing tomorrow at 4 p.m. but we are also excited and we embrace the opportunity.”
No. 1 seeds are 119-1 against No. 16 seeds with every win coming by at least 12 points. The all-time average point differential in those wins is 39.8 points.
Ask Tennessee Tech seniors Peyton Carter and Anna Walker about the challenge they face and you’ll find they aren’t distracted by the potential buzzsaw that awaits them.
“We’re really excited and this is a huge stage for us,” Walker said. “We’re just pumped for the opportunity that we have at hand. I think just looking around the room and just going back and just knowing that we’re playing for each other is what keeps us calm.”
South Carolina has been a No. 1 seed eight times in program history and is 8-0 against No. 16 seeded teams in the NCAA Tournament. South Carolina’s margin of victory against No. 16 seeds is 37.75 points. The most the Gamecocks have beaten a No. 16 seed by is by 58 points, which came in 2022 in a win over Howard, 79-21.
The closest the Gamecocks ever came to being upset by a No. 16 seed was when they beat Cal State Northridge 73-58 in 2014. The Matadors 58 points that day and is still the most points a No. 16 seed has scored against South Carolina.
The least amount of points the Gamecocks have ever scored against a No. 16 seed is 72 against Norfolk State in 2023, the most they’ve was 91 against Presbyterian last year.
This won’t be the first NCAA Tournament test for most of Tennessee Tech’s roster. The Golden Eagles were No. 16 seeds in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. That Tennessee Tech team beat Monmouth in the First Four before falling to No. 1 Indiana in the Round of 64. Carter said the Golden Eagles can draw on that experience.
“A couple of us have experienced this before, so we understand,“ Carter said. “Even before conference gets going we play bigger schools, I would say. We’ve played against that pace and know the difference of mid-major and Power 4. The pace is different but we’re just going to play our game. We just keep reminding each other, just what makes us go. What makes us good.”
Tennessee Tech (26-5) is coming into Friday’s matchup red-hot. The Golden Eagles are riding a 17-game win streak with its most recent victory coming in the OVC Tournament championship game. Coach Dawn Staley said their preparation for Tennessee Tech won’t be any different than South Carolina’s preparation for a team like Texas.
“We’re looking forward to the challenge,” Staley said. “Very good Tennessee Tech team that’s hot; 17-game win streak is a lot. So they got some momentum coming in. We got some momentum coming in. I just hope our habits are displayed and executed much longer than theirs.”
South Carolina has a 4-2 lead over Tennessee Tech in the all-time series. The last time the two teams played was all the way back in 1998 when then-No. 11 seed Tennessee Tech upset then-No. 6 seed South Carolina 77-73 in the NCAA Tournament. Both coaches joked they didn’t dig into the archives to bring up the most recent matchup with their respective teams.
Tennessee Tech will be walking in to an arena chock-full of South Carolina faithful on Friday. Carter said Tennessee Tech has pumped in crowd noise during it’s recent practices in an attempt to prepare for the incoming raucous atmosphere.
“We’re the 16 seed coming in and playing the one, so we understand what that is just in itself,” Carter said. “...This is going to be awesome. We practiced all week with crowd noises in practice, so we’re trying to prepare for that. This is be a great test for us. We’re such a connected team on the court anyway. So this will be awesome for us to just stick together, huddle, eye contact, everything. It’ll be big, but we’re excited for it.”
Tennessee Tech’s approach to playing South Carolina draws inspiration from a book the team is reading called The Obstacle is the Way, Rosamond said. The strategy is to essentially to not get overwhelmed.
“You learn to break it down in parts and that’s what we’ve got to do,” Rosamond said. “We can’t look at it as a 40 minute assignment. We understand that it is, but we’ve got to break it down into eight, five minute segments and focus on those first five minutes.”
Rosamond said she received some advice on the matchup from Tennessee Tech head football coach Bobby Wilder. In 2018, Wilder was the head coach at Old Dominion and led the Monarchs to a victory over Virginia Tech. He likened the road to the upset as outlasting a heavyweight fighter, an analogy Rosamond has adopted for Friday.
“You hang in and you try in those first couple rounds, you don’t get knocked out,” Rosamond said. “You got to avoid getting knocked out in those first couple rounds. I have full confidence that our kids are going to come in and they’ve not backed down from a challenge all year. We understand who they are, but we also understand who we are and we can’t forget that. We talked about that this morning, we can’t walk in here and let the crowd make us forget who we are. Let South Carolina, and their talent, and how good they are make us forget who we are.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
