Odds and ends from South Carolina’s heartbreaking loss to Stanford.

Following its third NCAA Final Four run in the last six NCAA Tournaments, South Carolina women's basketball will return to campus on Sat., April 3. Fans wishing to welcome the team home can do so at the Colonial Life Arena parking lots at approximately 2:30 p.m.

Out of an abundance of caution with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, the welcome home celebration will be socially distanced in Lots A, B and C in front of the arena. Fans should stand in front or behind their cars, and the team will parade through the parking lots in open-air vehicles to share a final moment of celebration of the 2020-21 season.

This close

On Thursday, Zia Cooke said the Gamecocks were “this close” to playing a perfect game. Then they ended up “this close” to winning the game. After the game, it was clear that they won’t forget how close the difference was between playing for a national championship and going home.

“The margin of error is that small,” Dawn Staley said. “It's that small to competing for a national championship, winning a national championship. It won't be our last time being in this situation. Next year we just got to practice with that margin of error in mind.”

“It's going to stick because it was a big game, Final Four,” Cooke said. “It's a dream to be here. So it's just going to motivate us. Like Coach said, we're going to work on the little things, what we can do better to get here next year and come out with the victory.”

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Aliyah Boston

Boston also missed a game-winning putback at the end of regulation against UConn, who went on to win in overtime. Staley said that as Boston put up the potential game-winner Friday, she thought it was going to be poetic justice. Instead it was more heartbreak. Boston was sobbing after the game, consoled by Stanford’s Haley Jones and Fran Belibi.

It took Boston a long time to get over the miss against UConn, and it will undoubtedly take her a long time to get over the miss against Stanford.

“It's tough because it's real personal to her,” Staley said. “It sticks with her. It's part of the game. One or two moments like that don't define who she is as a player. So I hope that she'll get over it. She won't for a long time.

“You’ve got to replace it with other great moments,” Staley continued. “Aliyah is wired that way for a reason. She's a perfectionist. She is one that really studies the game and thinks about the game. She holds herself to a higher standard. That's not part of her standard. So that's why it hurt so much, because it's something that she practices all the time. But it wasn't in the cards. We'll talk to her and try to get her to move off of it. She won't because she's just wired like that. I don't think it will impact her if she's in that situation. I don't think she would change her shot if she thought, Oh, I can miss this. She's not that type of player that's going to allow that shot to impact her next shot, her next move in the journey that she has in basketball. But when she's back in her room, she's going to cry. I know it. She's going to cry. She's going to cry a whole lot. But when it's time for us to pick back up and get back on the court in a couple of weeks, she'll move on.”

Staley then told a story from her own past, when she missed a game-winner in the Final Four in 1992, also against Stanford. Staley said she was over it, but as she recalled what happened, her face and her voice got more and more tense, suggesting she isn’t as over it as she claims.

“There are plays in my career that I think about,” she said. “I mean, 29 years ago when we lost to Stanford in the Final Four. The officials called the game off. I thought there was more time. They ran in the tunnel. I ran after them, say, C'mon back, you got to look and see, there's more time left on the clock. They put more time on the clock. We played that 0.8 seconds. We're down by one, I believe. In that instance, they put a fresh body on me, someone that didn't play the entire game. She came out. Angela Taylor, she was just fresh. I'm thinking, Okay, well, I broke away from her and just heaved up a shot. I thought about it. I'm like, I could have gotten her to foul me. She's so fresh and gung-ho about denying me the basketball, I should have started my breakout and stopped. She would have just actually ran me over. I could have just kind of lied down and faked a foul and went to the free throw line. So that stays with me. That's 29 years later. But from 29 years ago to now, I mean, there are so many great memories that replace that. It only comes up when I'm asked. Aliyah will get over it. Aliyah is a great player. Aliyah will come back stronger, better. If she's ever put in this position again, she'll knock it down.”

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Zia Cooke

During the tournament Staley and Cooke eached talked about how the Gamecocks, particularly Cooke, had to learn to sacrifice shot attempts and statistics to win games. But when Cooke got hot early, Staley had to ride the hot hand. Cooke tied her career-high with 23 shot attempts, tied her career-high with five threes, and scored 25 points.

“Zia is built for the biggest stage,” Staley said. “She was up to play. Shots were falling for her. I mean, she got great looks. She created great looks. She's probably a little down on the turnover late in the fourth quarter. Those instances, they'll be good teaching tools. But she put us in a position to win a basketball game with some of the things that she did for us on both sides of the basketball. I’m proud of her. She'll come back a much better basketball player because her trajectory is headed in the right direction. So we look forward to, again, her being on this stage and her performing the way she did.”

66-65

The final score of that game, Virginia’s national semifinal loss to Stanford in 1992, was 66-65. The final score of South Carolina’s national semifinal loss to Notre Dame in 2015 was 66-65. And the final score in South Carolina’s national semifinal loss to Stanford was, of course, 66-65.

In both of the Gamecocks’ losses, they came from behind to take the lead in the final minute, then they got a stop, then they got an unlucky bounce, and then missed a game-winner at the buzzer. In 2015, Aleighsa Welch hit the go-ahead basket, A’ja Wilson got a finger on Jewell Lloyd’s shot, and the awkward rebound went right to Madison Cable for a jumper. Then Tiffany Mitchell missed a three to win it. In 2021 it went, Destanni Henderson hit a go-ahead three, Aliyah Boston forced a miss by Lexie Hull, the rebound was tapped out to Hayley Jones for a jumper, and then Beal and Boston missed game-winning shots at the buzzer.

Next time Staley and South Carolina are in the Final Four, just make sure the score isn’t in the mid-60s.

Officiating

The tournament has had an Elite Eight and Final Four game come down to a final shot, plus an all-time upset in the other Final Four game, and yet in all three games the officiating has become a major storyline. From not calling an elbow to the face (or the other foul on the same shot) in Baylor-UConn, to a phantom foul against Christyn WIlliams that was somehow upheld in the UConn-Arizona game, to no call on Brea Beal being shoved in the back in transition, to a kicked ball that everyone but the three officials saw, and countless other plays, missed calls or noncalls played far too big of role in the outcome of games.

Geno Auriemma made no excuses that UConn won because of a missed call. Tara VanDerveer said some of the officiating was “weird.” Staley complained that Boston, who rarely responds to calls but jumped up and down in disbelief on a couple of different occasions, is called for ticky-tack calls while opponents hack away at her.

“I mean, the officiating, they’ve got a tough job,” Staley said, choosing her words carefully. “There are dreams on the line. Everybody wants to compete for a national championship. I saw the kicked ball. I didn't make a big deal out of it. But, I mean, I don't know what you want me to say. I can't say much about it besides they’ve got a tough job.”

It’s unfortunate that for all the good games and good storylines, this tournament was dominated by stories about poor officiating and the NCAA’s horrendous lack of leadership and sexism.

Missing LeLe

South Carolina managed the absence of LeLe Grissett throughout the tournament, but it showed up against Stanford. Stanford was able to play Haley Jones at the four, where she was matched up with either Victaria Saxton or Laeticia Amihere. Neither has the quickness to keep up with Jones, and neither was able to consistently take advantage on the other end. Keeping Jones at the four kept her away from Brea Beal, South Carolina’s best defender.

“When they went big, put her at the three, I thought it was a perfect matchup for Brea Beal,” Staley said. “I thought Brea Beal did a great job on (her).”

If Grissett had been available, Staley would have been able to go small to match Stanford, playing Beal and Grissett at the forward spots, a lineup that worked well for the Gamecocks this season. As it was, Staley couldn’t play the matchups.