#1 South Carolina visits #5 NC State to tip off the 2021-22 basketball season. The game is the first time in women’s basketball history that two top ten, let alone top five teams have met to start the season.

1. About Last Year

It would be an overstatement to say South Carolina and NC State are rivals, but you’d better believe South Carolina has had this game circled ever since NC State upset the Gamecocks in Columbia last season, ending South Carolina’s 29-game winning streak and handing South Carolina its first loss in over a year and first home loss since the 2019 season.

Dawn Staley blasted her team after the game, calling them “uncoachable” and saying “I think we probably put basketball back a few years. They won the battle of some bad basketball.” That comment wasn’t well-received in Raleigh, where it was taken as a jab at the Wolfpack. Objectively, however, it was some pretty bad basketball.

Both teams shot under 30% for the game. NC State was just 4-17 from three and South Carolina was worse at 2-12. South Carolina was almost as bad from the foul line, where it was 4-11. The teams combined for 19 assists and 20 turnovers.

“It’s hard to watch because we weren’t that team for 99% of the season,” Staley said. “We can say it’s an anomaly, but it was us out there playing. We’re not motivated by it because it wasn’t really us. I think what we’re motivated by is trying to be the best that we can be and play our style of play and play the way we’re used to playing. If we get beat, we get beat. We’ll probably get beat by a really good basketball team, but we want to put our best foot forward.”

It should be a better game this year, partly because it almost has to be, but also because the Gamecocks want revenge, and when they want revenge they tend to get it. Even the Gamecock freshmen have been preparing for the Wolfpack all summer.

“We knew coming in that we were going to beat Benedict. We weren’t thinking it was going to be a breeze or anything, but we knew so we were more focused on NC State coming in,” Saniya Rivers said following South Carolina’s exhibition. “It’s just NC State, NC State. It’s been NC State. Soon we’ll start doing the scout on them. Practice is about to pick up since we have a week before we play them.”

NC State doesn’t have the revenge factor, but the Wolfpack would certainly like to validate last year’s win. What better time to make a statement? The game gets a marquee spot as the first game of ESPN’s tip-off triple-header. It’s a sellout and it’s Wolfpack Party night at historic Reynolds Coliseum. Staley recalled playing there as a player, calling the atmosphere “quaint” (but in a good way), and saying the fans can be imposing because “they’re on top of you.” She also lamented how hot it could get, so she’ll be happy to know that the most recent renovations include air conditioning.

2. Building off Benedict

Following the Benedict exhibition, Staley said she wanted the Gamecocks to be more efficient in transition and to play with more toughness, especially on defense.

“We’re not converting in transition like we should,” she said. “That’s been a nemesis of ours. We get up and down the floor and make some baskets, but we have to convert at a larger rate than what we’re doing.”

On the other end of the court, Staley thought the Gamecocks were too passive.

“Defensively, we’ve got work to do in that area. We’re not playing with toughness,” Staley said. “I’ve asked our practice players, they’ve got to give it to us. They’ve got to play tougher.”

(Rivers knew what was coming. She said, “The boys are going to start beating us up a little bit because we know NC State is going to be tough on us.” This was after one had already broken her nose.)

After a week of practice, Staley was pleased with the results.

“This team is committed to wanting to do things the right way. We challenged them. We challenged them all week long,” she said. “They responded well. I think we have a game plan in place that will help us win.”

3. Center of attention

The matchup in the post is clearly the matchup to watch. The game features three of the best posts in the entire country. Aliyah Boston is the two-time Lisa Leslie Award winner for best center, and Elissa Cunane is a two-time finalist. Kamilla Cardoso joins them on the watch list this season. Cunane is also the preseason ACC Player of the Year, and she and Boston were All-Americans last season.

There is plenty of familiarity amongst the three. Boston and Cunane were teammates this summer for Team USA in the AmeriCup Tournament, while Cardoso played for Brazil. Plus, Cunane faced both last season, winning both games and getting the better of the individual matchups. In the South Carolina-NC State game, both players struggled but Cunane made all eight of her free throws and had 14 points, six rebounds, and four blocks compared to nine points and nine rebounds from Boston.

Cunane and Cardoso faced each other once, at Syracuse. In that game Cunane had 17 points and nine rebounds, while Cardoso got into foul trouble and only played 16 minutes, still grabbing ten rebounds. Syracuse led by a point when Cardoso picked up her fourth foul with a little over five minutes to play. She had to sit and did not return as NC State pulled out a 68-61 win.

But this year Cunane has to face both Boston and Cardoso together. South Carolina will be able to keep their bigs rested and hopefully wear down Cunane. South Carolina can also play Boston and Cardoso at the same time for a little extra girth or to get Boston away from Cunane’s defense. The options are tantalizing.

“If there was anybody in the transfer portal, we wanted (Cardoso),” Staley said. “She brings a different dimension to our team and she’s ready. She doesn’t want to look bad. She always wants to look good. She utilizes her height to her advantage, and that’s to our advantage.”

4. Lineups

Tuesday night may not be the best chance to get a look at all of South Carolina’s new faces (aside from Cardoso). Staley will “probably” go with the same starting lineup from last year. That includes Zia Cooke, who sat out the exhibition with a minor right ankle injury. The rest of the lineup is Destanni Henderson, Brea Beal, Victoria Saxton, and Aliyah Boston. And when the going gets tough, which it probably will, Staley is going to lean on who she knows she can trust.

“Whoever enters the game will obviously have done some things that are impressive in practice. What they do with that time is going to be on them. They have to enter the game and make an impact. If they can play well they’ll get extended minutes,” Staley said. “If they don’t, we’ve got to try some other people.”

5. Scouting the Wolfpack

Like South Carolina, NC State returns almost everyone from last season and has added impact players. NC State added transfer guard Diamond Johnson, who averaged 17.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.5 assists last season at Rutgers. ESPN ranked Johnson (a Philadelphia native who the Gamecocks recruited) the fourth-most important transfer going into the season, just s few spots behind top-ranked Cardoso. NC State also added Madison Hayes, who played at Mississippi State last season (and was also recruited by South Carolina). Johnson had 18 points and five assists, both team highs, in NC State’s exhibition, and Hayes had nine points in a team-high 23 minutes. NC State also returns second-leading scorer Jakia Brown-Turner, who averaged 13.5 points per game and shot 37% from three.

The Wolfpack have some injury issues. Kayla Jones is working her way back from a knee injury and had just two points in ten minutes in the exhibition, a significant dropoff from her play last season when Jones averaged 11.9 points and 7.1 rebounds and was first team All-ACC last season. She led the Wolfpack with 16 points and 12 rebounds in the game in Columbia last season. Another forward, Jada Boyd, is out indefinitely with a hand injury. Boyd averaged 11.5 points and 5.9 rebounds last season and would have been counted on to pick up the slack as Jones works her way back.

As a team, NC State shot an impressive 37% from three last season, and Johnson makes the Wolfpack even more dangerous from behind the arc. NC State also averaged 41.4 rebounds per game, a plus-7.2 margin. South Carolina averaged 47.0 rebounds with a plus-14.4 margin.

The Ws

Who: #1 South Carolina at #5 NC State

When: Tuesday, November 9, 5:00 pm

Where: Reynolds Coliseum, Raleigh, NC

Watch: ESPN

----

• Not a subscriber? Learn more about Gamecock Central here!

• Watch our live show and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

• Sign up for Gamecock Central's FREE news alerts and daily newsletter.

• Subscribe to our podcast on whatever podcast platform you prefer!

• Follow us on Twitter: @GamecockCentral, @GCChrisClark, @WesMitchellGC, @CollynTaylor and @Mike_Uva.

• Follow Gamecock Central on Instagram @GamecockCentral.