Morris: USC’s road to Tampa requires new focus
THE SOUTH Carolina women’s basketball team returned to Colonial Life Arena on Monday evening to celebrate its official entrance into the NCAA tournament, and to again be recognized with a top seeding.
Yet the reaction to that news was wholly different this go-round.
A year ago, USC broke into a wild celebration that included Dawn Staley leading the team in dancing on the court. This time, the Gamecocks and Staley sat in the arena stands and were rather subdued in their merriment.
“With our body of work and with what we’ve been able to complete during the season, we came in expecting to be in this position,” Aleighsa Welch said by way of comparison. “When you’re expecting it, you handle it a little better than we did last year. Last year, we didn’t know.”
To be fair, USC did not anticipate a No. 1 seeding in the Palo Alto Regional a year ago. Many expected the Gamecocks to fall on the second-seed line of a regional. This year, the only unknown was if USC would land in the nearby Greensboro Regional, which it did.
“We did everything that was probably required for us to do to get a No. 1 seed,” Staley said. “So, we almost anticipated it.”
There should not have been any doubt about USC getting to play in the closest regional for rounds three and four of the tournament. The Gamecocks competed in the toughest conference in the country for women’s basketball and won the SEC’s regular-season and tournament titles.
Because of that, USC likely enters the tournament with a different purpose this season. A Final Four appearance would have been satisfactory a season ago, and the program’s first appearance in the national semifinals this season certainly would elevate the program.
But since the first day of preseason practice, this USC team has eyed a national championship. It secured a No. 1 national ranking for the first time and held that for nine weeks of the regular season.
Despite a lopsided loss at Connecticut, USC proved during the season that it is a contender for the national crown. In so doing, the Gamecocks deserved to get in position where they will be favored to be playing in Tampa, Fla., in three weeks.
The reward for a stellar regular season is to receive a top seed, which in women’s basketball virtually assures a team of advancing two rounds. Sixteenth-seeded Savannah State might arrive for Friday’s game at Colonial Life Arena with a rallying cry of “Remember Harvard!” but the Tigers probably know their fate.
In the history of the women’s tournament, Harvard is the only 16-seed to win, stunning top-seeded Stanford in 1998. Otherwise, the top seeds have won 93 opening-round games.
The odds of a No. 1-seed losing in the second round increase slightly, but it still is a long shot. The top-seeded teams since the tournament began in 1982 are 117-10 in the second round, which speaks to the huge disparity between the best teams in the country and the middle of the pack.
USC should be further heartened by the fact that 70 percent of No. 1-seeded teams have reached a regional final, and 60 percent have played in a Final Four.
That does not mean USC will not be challenged en route to the Final Four. Staley said USC must focus its efforts only on the next opponent, which represents a shift in goal-setting from the regular season when winning the national championship was the ultimate goal.
“During the regular season, you have to think big picture,” Staley said. “But once you get into postseason, you have to truncate that to the next opponent. If you think too big, you can get ahead of yourselves.”
Judging by the restrained celebration at Monday’s tournament announcement, Staley should not be too concerned about this team losing focus.
This story was originally published March 16, 2015 at 9:42 PM with the headline "Morris: USC’s road to Tampa requires new focus."