First-place South Carolina travels to last-place Auburn Thursday night.

South Carolina and NC State sit atop women’s college basketball right now, and despite NC State’s head-to-head win, not much separates them. South Carolina ascended to the top spot in the Coaches’ Poll, which is released Tuesday, after NC State beat #1 Louisville. We have to wait until Monday to see who claims the top spot in the AP poll, but barring a loss it should be either South Carolina or NC State.

Watching the NC State-Louisville game, one thing stood out. In the second half, Louisville got away from its offense, looked very out of sync as it tried to do everything one-on-one, and was unable to adjust to what NC State was doing. Sound familiar? It was the same thing NC State did to South Carolina in their game. South Carolina couldn’t adjust then, and Louisville couldn’t adjust this week. Obviously NC State deserves credit for putting South Carolina and Louisville in that position, but it also offered some encouragement for South Carolina. Over the past couple of weeks, South Carolina has turned making in-game adjustments into a strength.

In wins over LSU and Alabama, South Carolina struggled in the first half, but made adjustments at halftime. The players adapted and South Carolina won both games. Against LSU, it was switching Zia Cooke to point guard and LeLe Grissett to power forward. Against Alabama, it was changing defensive assignments and offensive tactics.

“It’s pretty cool when you have a team which can embrace change,” Staley said after the LSU game. “I’m super proud of our team to be able to make those adjustments. It means they’re growing up.”

Should a Gamecock-Wolfpack rematch occur - and who wouldn’t want that? - South Carolina seems to be in much better shape than it was for the first game.

2. Honors

It’s been a busy week for watch lists.

Zia Cooke was named one of the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award Top Ten. The award goes to the nation’s best shooting guard. The award is one of the five position awards given out by the Basketball Hall of Fame. The point guard list was released Monday and drew ample criticism for its omissions, including Destanni Henderson. The small forward top ten was released Wednesday, and Brea Beal, who was on the preseason watch list, did not make the cut. The list for the Lisa Leslie Award will be announced Friday. Aliyah Boston won the award last year and should make the list.

Both Cooke and Boston were named to the Wooden Award Late-Season Top 20. The award is given to the national player of the year regardless of position.

The Naismith Award, one of the other player of the year awards, will announce its midseason college player of the year watch list next week, but it announced its high school player of the year semifinalist list earlier this week. The ten semifinalists included three members of South Carolina’s 2021 signing class. Raven Johnson, Saniya Rivers, and Sania Feagin each made the top ten. Only Bree Hall missed out, but she was on the 25-person midseason list.

It’s not a watch list, but Laeticia Amihere received an invite to the Team Canada Senior Women’s National Team virtual training camp. Amihere is one of 20 players who received an invite. She competed with the national team last year, which caused her to miss several South Carolina games.

In other Olympic news, the playing schedule has been released, and Team USA will play Nigeria. Former Gamecock Sarah Imovbioh is a member of the Nigerian team.

Team USA is holding a four-day mini-camp in Columbia this weekend, beginning Thursday. Three former Gamecocks are among the 19 participants: A’ja Wilson, Allisha Gray, and Tiffany Mitchell. They are part of a pool of 36 players from which the final roster will be selected. Associate head coach Lisa Boyer will serve as a court coach during the mini-camp.

3. Free Throws Matter

South Carolina was 19-20 from the foul line against Alabama. By percentage (95%), it was the Gamecocks’ best free throw shooting game of the Staley Era. Over the last two games, South Carolina is 38-42 (90.5%) from the line. This comes from a team that is shooting 65.4% for the season. So what changed?

Nothing, Staley said. Free throws have always been a point of emphasis, but the coaching staff didn’t want to focus on them to the point it became a mental issue. They worked at it and devised different ways to practice shooting free throws.

“Were we concerned? Absolutely,” Staley said. “We took it as one thing that we needed to work on. We do a ton of free throw shooting drills. We put them under pressure. When we’re competing up and down we’ll stop and we’ll treat it as a game. There’s so many things that we’re doing. Coach Boyer comes up with a lot of free throw competitions that will force our players to concentrate and get into their routine.”

4. Up next...

With the annual showdown against UConn up next and Auburn sitting at last place in the SEC at 0-8, one could be forgiven for looking ahead. Even though Auburn is a conference opponent, and South Carolina needs a win to keep stay atop the SEC standings, UConn is the big game, right? Who cares about Auburn, right? And that makes it a trap game, right?

“It’s not,” Staley said, rather emphatically. “People may call me crazy, but our Auburn game means more than the UConn game. You lose nothing from the UConn game besides a loss. You gain some NET points, you gain because the game is there. Auburn is the gateway to what we’re trying to do, it’s to win our league. You lose a game in our league and it’s a three-way tie. It puts so much pressure on you. The UConn game is no pressure.”

5. Scouting the Tigers

Auburn is probably the best 0-8 team the SEC has ever seen. Auburn has really only been blown out once in its SEC games, and the Tigers gave fits to ranked foes Kentucky, Texas A&M, and Arkansas, keeping the game in doubt into the fourth quarter against each.

Auburn has undergone remarkable roster turnover since last season, replacing 10 players. But there are still two constants. Senior forward Unique Thompson (17.8 points and 14.0 rebounds) is going to get a double-double, and Auburn’s full court press is going to make things difficult. South Carolina held Thompson to 12 points and eight rebounds in their meeting last season, but Tyasha Harris isn’t around to break the press anymore. Destanni Henderson will have that responsibility this time, and Staley said Henderson will have to resist the urge to beat the press with her dribble and rely more on passing to get Auburn out of position.

“It’s always being able to break their press. It’s constant, unrelenting, they’re focused on that. They know they have to turn you over in order for them to stay in the basketball game,” Staley said. “We have to play clean basketball. We have to try to keep it as clean as possible.”

The Ws

Who: #2 South Carolina (14-1, 9-0) at Auburn (5-11, 0-8)

When: Thursday, February 4, 7:00 pm

Where: Auburn Arena, Auburn, AL

Watch: SEC Network+