Aleighsa Welch’s impact for USC is beyond measure

Points and rebounds always can be replaced.

There’s no replacing everything else.

“There won’t be another Aleighsa Welch on this team,” two-time SEC Player of the Year Tiffany Mitchell said. “We’ll try, but there’s no one else who can do what she does. There will never be another one to wear a South Carolina jersey and be able to do that.”

It’s not the standard talk for a senior. It’s not coach speak.

South Carolina’s staff and players know the end is near, and they don’t want to think about it. They only want to give their most indispensable player a gift that would somehow equal what she has given them for four seasons, so when it does end, it ends in the best way possible – Welch lifting a trophy and her luminescent grin brightening Tampa’s Amalie Arena.

The Gamecocks have more talented players, more professional-ready players, more highly recruited players.

But they do not have a better player than the senior from Goose Creek, the kid her mother tabbed “my chocolate chip muffin” at birth but has been anything but soft and chunky since.

“I think Aleighsa always knows. She knows that we need her,” fellow senior Elem Ibiam said. “When we do need a big basket. What we need to do to help her when she needs to do it. Her drive, to not be denied. She refuses to be denied.”

Welch will play her final home game on Sunday evening, a building that she helped fill the past four years. From All-SEC Freshman to All-SEC second team to two-time All-SEC first team to being the knot all the Gamecocks have tied into over a four-year NCAA tournament run, she has been the most integral part of USC’s rise.

Dawn Staley said it four years ago. “She’ll always have a special place in our hearts,” Staley said, “because she’s our first home-grown recruit.”

Welch was the first South Carolinian to sign with Staley, but four years later, the statement carries more weight. The Gamecocks will return a bevy of talent next year, but there’s the uneasy feeling that if USC doesn’t reach the Final Four this season, it may squander its best chance.

Why?

No Welch next year.

“I’ve never been surprised,” sophomore Alaina Coates said. “Playing against her in high school, she was doing the same things. I’m just glad I’m playing with her and not against her, because I did not want to deal with this.”

The “this” is when she refused to stay down – not the sprained neck she suffered earlier in the year but returned to play the next game, not the bruised back she had later in the year but was out for maybe five minutes. Or when Texas A&M had a two-on-one break against her, passed to the other player as Welch picked one to guard – and Welch still blocked the shot. Or taking over when the Gamecocks stalled against Tennessee, grabbing every loose ball, rebounding every miss and sinking putback after putback.

The Gamecocks need something to happen, and Welch supplies that. It’s not coached or taught. It’s what she does.

“Being a leader, being a captain, I have to step up in those big moments,” Welch said. “Being a leader goes a lot further than what you’re able to say. It’s what you’re able to do, especially in times where the team needs you the most.”

If USC wins Sunday, Welch’s career could have four games remaining. She wants to have every one, and her teammates want it for her. It would be the only fitting moment for a player who has left so much of herself on the court and in the program.

As much talent as Mitchell has, it was Welch who got her started on the path to All-American. Welch could have been the 20-point scorer last year, demanding the ball on every possession; instead, she willingly gave up looks in favor of an extra pass to Mitchell.

“After we lost Ieasia (Walker) and Ashley (Bruner), some of our main scoring, she told me, ‘You’re probably going to play a bigger role than last year,’” Mitchell said. “She talked about me embracing it and how to handle it. Those were things I struggled with.”

Welch is 6-foot if she stands up very straight. What was she doing coaching the 6-foot-4 Coates?

“Before the season started, we were getting through preseason workouts. I felt like I couldn’t make it through,” Coates said. “She was there for me, talking me through it. I was in a two-week slump, asking ‘Why am I here, how am I going to get through this?’ She really made me feel good.”

Even when she’s taken a hard fall, there wasn’t worry. “She was laughing as they were taking her to the hospital,” Ibiam said.

But what to do when it’s over? When there is no final game, no last chance for a bucket, no rebound waiting to be corralled and cradled as the clock hits zeroes on another victory?

“I’m trying not to think about Aleighsa leaving yet,” Mitchell said. “I’m trying to get the most out of her. What she does, it’s not replaceable.”

This story was originally published March 21, 2015 at 10:55 PM with the headline "Aleighsa Welch’s impact for USC is beyond measure."