WBB: Five things you may have missed

A lot happened while you were sleeping off the turkey and watching wild rivalry games (for other teams) so let’s look at five things you may have missed over the holiday weekend.

1. Paradise Jam Recap

South Carolina’s first game of the Paradise Jam, Thanksgiving night against #17 Indiana, was a worst-case scenario. South Carolina seemed to be looking ahead to the big game against Baylor, couldn’t hit a shot, Indiana couldn’t miss, and pretty much the whole team was in foul trouble. The freshmen looked like freshmen for the first time, especially Aliyah Boston, who was playing in her hometown and tried to do too much instead of playing calm and under control. The result was a 71-57 loss, South Carolina’s first of the season.

The Gamecocks bounced back with a 68-53 win over the Washington State Cougars. The game was probably closer than it should have been, but Mikiah Herbert Harrigan, who was named to the all-tournament team, scored 20 and freshmen Brea Beal put on a defensive clinic, holding the Cougars’ leading scorer and rebounder, Borislava Hristova, to just nine points and three rebounds on 4-15 shooting with four turnovers.

On Saturday night was the big one against #2 Baylor, who dominated South Carolina, especially in the post, twice last season. It played out similar to the Maryland game, another opponent that won the post battle last season, with South Carolina controlling the paint, building a big lead early, and then holding on in the second half. South Carolina was plus-14 rebounding and blocked seven shots, and Boston had a tournament MVP performance. She scored 10 of her 20 points in the fourth quarter to help South Carolina pull away, grabbed 13 rebounds, and blocked two shots as she put on a show for her family and friends. The win, thanks to the 15-point margin of victory, gave South Carolina the Paradise Jam championship on point differential.

The win, termed “revenge” by Herbert Harrigan, did indeed exorcise some demons for South Carolina. It also showed again that South Carolina’s ceiling this season is as high as anybody, and Boston, despite being a freshman, is a force inside against anybody. She is also willing to do whatever it takes not to get on Dawn Staley’s bad side:

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2. Also in the top ten

It’s unfortunate that what may end up being the best day of the women’s basketball season came on Saturday, the same day as football rivalry games, and more unfortunate that none of the games was widely available to watch. To recap, there were three games between top ten teams, plus a game between #6 and #12 on Sunday. With those matchups, there was bound to be a shakeup in the polls, but there is even more chaos than even the most anarchic mind could have hoped.

First, #1 Oregon, thought by many to be untouchable, was beaten 72-62 by #8 Louisville in the finale of the Island Division of the Paradise Jam. Just hours later, on the same court, #2 Baylor had its 36-game winning streak snapped by #5 South Carolina by a score of 74-59, and was held to its lowest scoring output in more than three years. A few hours later and a few thousand miles away, #3 Stanford held off #10 Mississippi State 67-62 in the Greater Vancouver Showcase, the only higher-ranked team to win this weekend. Then on Sunday, in the Maggie Dixon Classic, #12 Florida State went to Fort Worth and upset #6 Texas A&M, 80-58.

3. Chaos in the rankings

So who is number one when the poll comes out? Who knows? You figure you have to drop #1 Oregon because their best win came in an exhibition over Team USA. That doesn’t count. You drop #2 Baylor because they have to be behind South Carolina. #3 Stanford has the win over #10 Mississippi State. #4 Connecticut and #7 Oregon State have yet to play a ranked opponent, let alone beat a top ten team. #8 Louisville has the win over Oregon, the best win anyone can claim. However, #5 South Carolina has wins over #2 Baylor and then-#4 (now-#9) Maryland, and nobody else has two quality wins like that. But the Gamecocks also lost to #17 Indiana, so how much do you penalize them for the loss and how much do you reward them for the wins?

We’ll find out soon enough, but the most important thing to remember is: this is meaningless. The polls don’t matter. The only thing that matters for South Carolina is being placed in the Greenville region, whether as a #1 seed or a #4 seed (although the former is more likely than the latter).

4. Back to the islands

Lost in the noise of actual games being played, South Carolina announced that it will be returning to the Caribbean next season to participate in the inaugural women’s edition of the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament. The tournament takes place at Paradise Island Bahamas, and the other participants will be Oregon, Syracuse, USF, Central Michigan, Marquette, Minnesota and Oklahoma. The men’s tournament has been held since 2011. The women’s tournament will take place November 21-23, 2020, so I’ll start taking donations to fund my travel costs now.

5. Looking ahead

South Carolina has a somewhat odd December schedule. It plays just one game over the next two weeks, Saturday at Temple. Then it plays three games in the week between exams and Christmas, hosting Purdue, Duke, and South Dakota. Then it has another ten days off before hosting Kentucky to start SEC play.

Purdue and Duke may be the “name” opponents, but South Dakota is actually the better team this season and is on the fringe of the top 25. The Coyotes received an at-large NCAA Tournament bid last season and went 28-6. They are currently 7-1 with wins over fellow mid-major power Drake and power conference foes Missouri and Ohio State. Their lone loss is another fringe top 25 team, Missouri State.