Gamecocks prepare for "toughest game" of tournament run

South Carolina was playing in the bubbled 2021 NCAA Tournament, getting set to play the Texas Longhorns for a trip to the Final Four in San Antonio. This was already Dawn Staley’s fourth trip to the elite eight as a head coach, but for most of her players it was their first. And just before the Gamecocks dominated the Longhorns 62-34, she let her players in on what was coming.

What was coming, according to Staley, was a game tougher than even a Final Four or National Championship game would be.

“The first time I heard her say that was our sophomore year,” Thompson said. “I think the reason that it’s such a difficult game is that everyone is just bringing that extra little push to get to the Final Four. We just have to bring it. They're definitely going to bring it and throw everything at us, so we have to be ready to take that and bring it back.”

Staley is 4-1 in elite eight games with the Gamecocks, the lone loss coming in 2018 against UConn. The seniors on her team are 2-0, with the blowout win over Texas in 2021 and a comfortable dispatching of Creighton last year.

This is the fourth time her Gamecocks will enter the elite eight game as the higher-seeded team, but only the third time it will be the top two seeds in the region. No. 1 seed South Carolina beat No. 2 seed Florida State in 2015 to clinch the first Final Four appearance in program history, and that UConn loss in 2019 was a matchup of top two seeds.

Tomorrow it will be another No. 2 seed, the Maryland Terrapins. South Carolina did beat Maryland 81-56 in the regular season, but it was just five days into the regular season and Maryland’s leading scorer Diamond Miller missed the game with a knee injury. And with just one more hurdle standing in the way of the last destination on the journey, Staley still maintains her belief that the fourth game of the tournament is the toughest one of all.

“It’s always the hardest game to play,” Staley said. “Because it's the next -- it's the step prior to going to the Final Four, and we get a familiar opponent in Maryland who is playing extremely well.”

A trip to Dallas for the Final Four has always been the ultimate goal for this team, the only possible outcome for a team coming off a National Championship and returning four of its five starters. Of course the ultimate mission is to win two games in Dallas and cement this growing dynasty, but getting to the Final Four is a signifier of a completion. Of reaching the end of the road, even if there is still more work to do at that last stop.

It would be three trips to the Final Four in three tournaments for one of the most accomplished recruiting classes in college sports history, and a return back to the building where the program won its first National Championship in 2017.

All of it is hanging in the balance with 40 minutes of basketball against Maryland. And while the players are staying locked into the bits and bites of another game — stopping Miller, controlling Maryland’s unique five-out offense, limiting turnovers after it had 20 in the first game against the Terrapins — the weight of the moment is not lost on players.

“I agree completely” Laeticia Amihere said when asked if this would be the toughest game. "That's to get to the next level, that's to get to Dallas. Everybody is gunning for the Final Four. Obviously everyone is gunning for the championship, but I feel like this is going to be the toughest game.”