South Carolina continues its season opening road swing with a trip to South Dakota.
1. Remember the bigs
It was an issue last year, and one game into this season, it’s still an issue: if South Carolina doesn’t get the post involved in the offense early, it never gets back to it. South Carolina’s four bigs (Aliyah Boston, Kamilla Cardoso, Victaria Saxton, and Laeticia Amihere) combined to attempt just 17 shots. They need to get a lot more looks than that.
“Getting our bigs in a position where they get more looks, maybe not in the low post, maybe on the perimeter,” is an emphasis, Staley said. “They have to be patient enough to let that develop and take some shots.”
2. Bench focus
Against NC State, Dawn Staley relied heavily on her starters. Zia Cooke played 36 minutes, Brea Beal played 34, and Destanni Henderson played 27 minutes despite sitting out the entire second quarter with foul trouble. All three played the entire second half. So much for all that depth South Carolina was supposed to have.
Staley essentially gave the starters a light practice Wednesday, partly for rest and partly to focus on the reserves.
“Getting the people that are coming off the bench in a good space, getting their confidence levels up, and hopefully they can contribute a little more” Staley said. “We don’t like playing our starters heavy minutes like we had to play. They’ve got to be ready to play, they’ve got to be ready to contribute, so we’re getting better. We’re really concentrating on that.”
3. Getting their feet wet
Of the five newcomers, transfer Cardoso played 16 minutes, but the four freshmen played just 12 minutes combined, and Saniya Rivers and Sania Feagin did not play. Bree Hall had a rebound and turnover in four minutes. Raven Johnson missed her only shot attempt and played only eight minutes, all in the first half. She was credited with one turnover, but caused another when she rushed into a screen before Laeticia Amihere was set.
“We’re going to try some people to come off the bench. Whether they can deliver is one thing,” Staley said. “Once they know they’re the focal point they’re a lot better.”
Johnson’s jitters are understandable, but the surprise was Rivers getting tagged with a DNP-CD. Throughout the preseason Staley said Rivers needed to get better defensively, and in a tight game you don’t want to give up easy baskets, but it was still unexpected. Staley said she purposefully did not talk to Rivers Wednesday, waiting to see how she would respond to some “tough love.”
“Yesterday was very promising,” Staley said Thursday. “She responded on both sides of the basketball. She’s a great player. We’ve just got to get her there.”
4. “Net” Worth
If you were on social media Thursday you probably saw a flood of pictures and videos of college coaches opening a package from Dawn Staley. Enclosed was a note and small box containing a piece of Staley’s 2017 national championship net. It was the fulfilment of a promise made in 2015.
That year, when South Carolina made its first Final Four, Carolyn Peck gave Staley a piece of Pecks 199 championship net she won at Purdue. At the time Peck was the only black woman to coach a national champion. Giving Staley a piece of the net was a sort of passing the torch, with the expectation that when Staley won a championship, she would do the same thing. Staley got her net in 2017, and had to decide who would get a piece of her net. Initially, Staley was going to give it to Arizona coach Adia Barnes, who took the Wildcats to their first Final Four last season. Staley forgot to give the piece to Barnes when Barnes was in Columbia over the summer, and ended up considering.
“I just didn’t know who,” Staley said. “There are a lot of black coaches out there doing good things. I thought about two, three, four of them. Then I thought, hey, let’s just give them all.”
The gesture is meant to offer support and encouragement to other black women head coaches throughout the country. Staley said she’s not finished.
“We missed a few jucos, so we’ve got a few left.”
5. Scouting the Coyotes
South Dakota dropped a 73-71 nailbiter to visiting Oklahoma Tuesday night. The Coyotes finished second in the Summit League last season and won the Summit League tournament. The Coyotes return 13 of 15 players, 98% of the scoring, and 95% of the rebounding from last year’s team and were picked to win the conference this season. Leading scorer Hannah Sjerven averaged 17.1 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks last season. Guard Chloe Lamb was right behind, averaging 15.8 points. Point guard Liv Korngable averaged 14.2 points and 3.8 assists.
This is the third consecutive season South Carolina and South Dakota have met. In Columbia in 2019 South Carolina led by 20 in the third quarter and coasted to a 73-60 win behind 17 points from LeLe Grissett and 13 from Zia Cooke. The meeting last season, also at the Sanford Pentagon, was closer. South Carolina again built a 20-point lead in the third quarter and tried to coast home, but South Dakota cut the lead to seven with about a minute left and South Carolina had to sweat out an 81-71 win. Cooke again hit double figures with 19 points, tied with Destanni Henderson for the team lead. Lamb had 18 points and Sjerven had 15 points and 12 rebounds. In both games South Carolina controlled the glass and held South Dakota under 20% from three. That has been the key against a team that likes to shoot threes.
“They spread you out, drive you to the basket, trigger help and kick out for three,” Staley said. “We’re just trying to communicate a whole lot. Getting up and down in transition is a big key for us, just making sure we convert, and we’re getting better.”
This is technically a neutral site game. The Coyotes’ campus is in Vermillion, SD, about an hour south of Sioux Falls. It is the second consecutive season the Coyotes and Gamecocks have met in Sioux Falls after the reconfigured Battle4Atlantis was held there last season.
The Ws
Who: #1 South Carolina (1-0) vs #rv South Dakota (0-1)
When: Friday, November 12, 7:00 pm
Where: Sanford Pentagon, Sioux Falls, SD
Watch: ESPNews
