WBB: Five Things to Watch - Arkansas - GamecockScoop: South Carolina Gamecocks Football & Basketball Recruiting

Wednesday evening the Wooden Award Midseason Top 25 was announced. Players on the list are the top candidates for the player of the year award, and included Tyasha Harris and Aliyah Boston. Harris was on the preseason top 30 watch list, but Boston is a new addition, one of four players added. Boston is also the only freshman. Five schools (UConn, Oregon, Baylor, Oregon State, and South Carolina) have multiple players on the list.

The award has been given out since 2004. A’ja Wilson won in 2018, South Carolina’s only previous winner.

2. Substitution shenanigans

There were a couple of unexpected lineup decisions against Alabama that illustrate South Carolina’s depth and versatility, as well as the selflessness that has defined this team.

Walk-on freshman Olivia Thompson has played almost exclusively in garbage time this season, aside from 94 seconds at the end of the second quarter against Dayton when all the other guards were in foul trouble. She got her first truly meaningful minutes against Alabama. With Alabama’s zone giving South Carolina trouble, Staley put Thompson in to take advantage of the open spots in the zone. It took Thompson less than 30 seconds to drain a three, much to the enjoyment of her teammates. She played the final four minutes of the first half, but then did not play at all in the second half.

Staley has said before that Thompson needs to improve defensively to get more playing time. It was notable that while Thompson was in the game against Alabama, South Carolina played a zone, which helped mask any of Thompson’s defensive weaknesses.

Almost as notable was that Boston sat the entire fourth quarter despite having one of her best games in a while with 17 points and 12 rebounds. But Staley felt she needed Victaria Saxton’s defense and experience to hold off Alabama. Boston could have sulked, but she stayed engaged in the game and understood the move.

“She was cheering, she was into the game, that’s what makes her special,” Staley said. “Probably any other player with those kind of statistics, we’ve got to have a Monday morning meeting to see what was going on, but not her. I told her after the game I appreciate her being able to stay in the game, even though she wasn’t in the game.”

3. Remember last year?

South Carolina and Arkansas played twice last year, once in Fayetteville, and once in Greenville in the SEC Tournament. In the first game, Staley shuffled the starting lineup to try to matchup with Arkansas better, and it seemed to backfire. South Carolina missed its first ten shots and trailed by as much as 12 in the first quarter. It trailed by four going into the fourth but pulled out the win behind career-highs from Destanni Henderson and Saxton. Saxton missed the rematch, an Arkansas win. Outside of Tyasha Harris and Mikiah Herbert Harrigan, South Carolina didn’t seem focused, Chelsea Dungee was nearly unstoppable, and Arkansas shot 11-22 from three as it pulled away in the fourth.

Oddly, perhaps, the win became a disruption and the loss led to a rally. I thought Staley out-thought herself in the first game (you can choose whether to trust her coaching acumen or mine), and the lineup changes disrupted players’ confidence, especially Herbert Harrigan. South Carolina had won three straight and 11 of 12 going into that game, and seemed to be settling into a rhythm, but after that game went just 5-3 over the rest of the regular season. The tournament loss was one of those games where you could clearly tell which team was more motivated (hint: not South Carolina), and Staley was furious with the performance. South Carolina responded with a run to the Sweet 16 and loss to eventual national champion Baylor.

All of that background is a lot of words to say, South Carolina wasn’t happy with how it played against Arkansas last year. But if, like me, you are looking at this as a revenge game, the Gamecocks disagree.

“We’re not even going to bring up last year because it’s a new year,” Harris said, waving her hand dismissively. “We’ve got a new team and they’ve got a new team and we’ll see how it goes.”

“We’ve got a totally different basketball team,” Staley said. “We want to win this game. We want to protect our home court.”

4. Defending Dungee

Dungee scored 32 points and went 10-11 from the foul line in the first game, and then scored 31 while going 13-13 in the Greenville. This year, Dungee is third in the SEC in scoring at 19.7 points per game, along with 5.3 rebounds and 1.7 assists. Dungee is not a great three-point shooter (29.5 percent), but like everyone in Arkansas’ offense, she has the green light to shoot and has made the ninth-most threes (on the fourth-most attempts) in the SEC. But Dungee’s real skill is in getting to the free throw line. She leads the conference in free throws made and attempted, and has made almost 20 more than second place. She averages 5.5 makes and 6.6 attempts per game, 82.8 percent, third in the SEC.

Dungee (5-11) is a little smaller than Rhyne Howard (6-2), but she figures to be the next big challenge for Brea Beal (6-1). After a stellar game against Howard and Kentucky, Beal was quiet against Alabama, struggling with fouls in a tightly called game that negated her length and athleticism. The Kentucky game likely provides the two roadmaps South Carolina has for containing Dungee, although Staley emphasized that you have to defend Kentucky and Arkansas completely differently. Beal was so good against Howard that for the second half Kentucky switched Howard to power forward to get her away from Beal. The result was a lot of points for Howard, but just as many given up on the other end as South Carolina used the size advantage to get good shots. That could be the case with Dungee, a guard who is essentially Arkansas’ power forward. South Carolina could opt to use its superior size to go at Dungee on defense and wear her down, a favorite tactic of Staley’s. She could also go small and try to wear Dungee out by making her chase Beal around.

“She can score, a three-way scorer,” Staley said. “She’s tough. She’s got some pizazz to her and that makes her tough.”

5. Scouting the Razorbacks

Arkansas shoots. A lot. Anywhere. Any time. They basically play four guards, and the goal is to make up for the lack of size by running and shooting - and they make their shots. Amber Ramirez is second in the country in three-pointers made, and Alexis Tolefree is 21st. As a team, Arkansas has attempted the tenth-most threes in the country, but they have made the fourth-most. Arkansas leads the SEC and is 16th in the country at 38.6 percent, and averages 10.1 makes on 26.2 attempts per game.

The game plan against Arkansas is easy to identify, but hard to execute. You have to run with them, know they are sprinting to the three-point line to shoot, and stay with the shooters. And you have to make Dungee work for her points without fouling her.

“The space the floor, they’re able to shoot threes and make them,” Staley said. “Arkansas takes it to another level. Probably 45 percent of their shots are threes. It’s coming from everybody.”

The Ws

Who: #4 South Carolina (14-1, 2-0) vs #21 Arkansas (13-2, 1-1)

When: Thursday, January 9, 7:00 pm

Where: Colonial Life Arena

Watch: SEC Network+