Here's the rest of the notebook following the Gamecocks historic win in the SEC Tournament.
South Carolina has beaten Georgia 14 straight times, dating all the way back to a 42-40 barnburner in Athens in 2013. Georgia had a different coach then (Andy Landers) and Joni Taylor had a different name (Crenshaw). But a coaching change, a marriage and two kids later, Georgia still can’t beat South Carolina. The games haven’t been especially close either: Sunday’s was just the third settled by single digits.South Carolina also has a habit of ending Georgia’s SEC tournament. They’ve met in four of the last five SEC tournaments, with South Carolina winning each time. South Carolina also beat Georgia in 2014 in Duluth, GA. They also split games in Nashville in 2011 and 2012. It’s not quite Gamecocks-(Mississippi State) Bulldogs, but it’s still quite a streak.
Staley didn’t hesitate when asked what she wants to improve on from the SEC Tournament.
“The top of our to-do list is ‘make layups,’” she said. “If we can make layups, we wouldn't have to cat and mouse the game at the end of the game. If we just made layups we'd be undefeated, to be quite honest. That is it. We'll continue to work that in hopes we put that part of the game together for us.”
By its own uninspiring standards this season, South Carolina wasn’t that bad at layups in Greenville. Over the three games, South Carolina officially shot 42-85 on layups, 49.4%. South Carolina was 15-24 against Alabama and 14-28 against Georgia, but just 13-33 against Tennessee, although the Lady Vols and all their long athletic shot-blockers had a lot to do with that.
It was a bad weekend for the officials. There were numerous blown calls throughout the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, and some questionable calls in the finals. It seemed everyone was affected eventually.
Fortunately, there was no single game-altering call, although Alabama probably has the biggest complaint after it lost a crucial late game possession against South Carolina when Zia Cooke clearly lost a ball out of bounds and the officials kept possession with South Carolina. Kristy Curry pleaded with the officials to correct the call, but it was outside the last two minutes and couldn’t be reviewed (the officials seemed to acknowledge their mistake by not giving her a technical).
Fixing officiating isn’t easy because officiating isn’t easy. NBA officials are the best in the world, and they make lots of mistakes. Women’s college basketball officials are several notches below that. The SEC’s group of officials is usually solid, with a few very famous exceptions (the Mizzou trio, Bryan Enterline’s phantom foul to give Tennessee game-winning free throws), which made last weekend both surprising and disappointing.
I’d be curious how playing during the pandemic affected the officials. I definitely noticed more stoppages to address administrative issues this season - clock issues, keeping track of fouls, substitutions - that seemed to be a product of the spread out benches and scorer’s tables.
On multiple occasions this season Staley has complained publicly that the Gamecocks are too nice. Her frustration apparently reached a boiling point at halftime against the Crimson Tide, when the Gamecocks let the Tide back in the game after a dominant first quarter.
“She told us nice teams cannot win championships,” Boston said. “They can't even win SEC championships. I think that right there kind of set it off a little bit. We said, you know what, guys, we need to bring this energy the entire game. Teams are going to be physical. We know they're going to be coming after us. We just have to stand our ground and be ready for it.”
Staley was relieved to see some nastiness come out, whether it was standing up to Tennessee and Zia Cooke getting the first Gamecock technical foul of the season, diving for loose balls, and generally standing their ground in tense moments.
“You just don't get rid of niceness over a weekend. Nastiness is a lifestyle really,” Staley said. “I'm just happy to see that it's in there, like it's in our players. As coaches, we have to pull that out of them or else they're just going to be comfortably in their skin. That's not the way the world works because more times than not nice people finish maybe not last place but surely not first place.”
Destanni Henderson played 109 of a possible 120 minutes over the weekend. She was visibly tired at times against Georgia, but she gutted it out and saved her best for the fourth quarter.
“I just didn't feel comfortable with anybody else on the floor today because she was working so well,” Staley said. “I knew she was tired, but I brought her over to the side, and was like, ‘You got to finish it. You got to suck it up, you got to finish it. We can't afford to take you off the floor.’ She shook her head and she made plays.”
In case you missed it, the All-Tournament team was
Maya Caldwell – Georgia
Jenna Staiti – Georgia
Rhyne Howard – Kentucky
Aliyah Boston – South Carolina – MVP
Zia Cooke – South Carolina
Destanni Henderson – South Carolina
It was the second year in a row Henderson made the all-tournament team. She was joined by Tyasha Harris and tournament MVP Mikiah Herbert Harrigan last season. If you are curious, I voted for Boston (MVP), Cooke, Henderson, Caldwell, and Que Morrison.
When Staley and Joni Taylor coached in the championship game it was the first time two Back women met in the title game of a power five conference. It’s not likely to be the last. Seven of the SEC’s 14 head coaches this season were Black women (Auburn's Terri Williams-Flournoy was fired following the season, and there others are four white women and three white men). That may not sound like a lot, but there are only six Black women in the other power five conferences combined. Consider also that Staley is, in the history of both men’s and women’s NCAA Basketball, one of just six Black coaches to win a championship. The others are John Thompson (Georgetown men, 1984), Nolan Richardson (Arkansas men, 1994), Tubby Smith (Kentucky men, 1998), Carolyn Peck (Purdue women, 1999), Kevin Ollie (UConn men, 2014), and Staley (2017).
It was fitting because while Staley has become a leader and mentor to many Black women (to be fair, many coaches of all races and genders model themselves after Staley) in the coaching profession, Taylor is unique. Taylor may not consider Staley a mentor (I haven’t asked), but they are “extended family.” Joni’s husband Darius Taylor was an assistant under Staley at Temple and South Carolina. He left the Gamecocks’ staff in 2015 when he married Joni, because he didn’t want to coach against her or live three hours apart. Darius is now an assistant coach for the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream.
Following the game, both Staley and Taylor talked about the significance of the game. First, Staley: (Quotes are taken directly from the transcript provided and copied in full, given their significance.)
“I mean, if I told you how many text messages that I got from other black coaches around the country just congratulating us, you know, saying thank you for giving them hope that one day they can be in this position, assistant coaches as well. I mean, I've been very fortunate to have a long career in coaching. Somebody believed in me well beyond my imagination of being a coach. He gave me an opportunity to do something that, again, I did not want to do. But the challenge of it was the thing that won me over. I just feel like if someone like myself, of course I played the game at the highest level, but I had no coaching experience, zero, when I got into coaching. He believed enough in me to think that I could do a great job with it. Fortunately for me, it rang true. But there are a lot of assistant coaches out there who have had as long a career as I have assistant coaching, black, white, all of them. But black women haven't got a whole lot of opportunities to be head coaches in Division I basketball. If I had to go Division II, which I don't know a whole lot about Division II or III, it will probably ring true. If not, we would hear or and more about it. Again, I'm fortunate to be a part of the SEC, which half of the coaches were black women coaches. We look like something that was very different, or very different than the rest of the country. So my heart is full to look down on that sideline and see Joni Taylor, someone I know, I love. We've been in the business. Her husband was one of our assistant coaches here for a long time here and at Temple. I think what you saw gives black women hope that one day they can represent in this way. It's not by any means shunning any other coaches, any other ethnicities. It's not doing any of that. It's just for a very long time coaching rosters have been filled with a lot of black assistant coaches. Some of them have paid their dues to at least get an opportunity. Not status quo, just real opportunities to learn, to grow, and to better our game, and to give the young ladies, most of the young ladies that we coach, a role model, someone that looks like them. It's nothing against other coaches, men coaches, white, Chinese coaches. It's nothing against them. It's everything for what has been lacking in our game.”
Joni Taylor:
“Dawn said it best yesterday, right? It shows what we're capable of. Everybody won today. Everybody won today. It was a huge moment to be able to showcase what we were able to do, our two teams. Dawn has been the leader of that in the SEC. She's the one who came in and got South Carolina to where it is now. Then fortunately enough, we've had obviously six other black females lead programs along with her. Dawn is the one who started this. Currently obviously Bernadette Locke* was the very first. When I was growing up in high school, I never witnessed two black female coaches coaching for a conference championship. So I think you can't dream what you can't see. So today was a chance for people to dream something that they haven't seen before. I'm very proud to be a part of it. Just proud for both programs.”
*Bernadette Locke was an assistant coach for the Kentucky men’s team from 1990-95 and head coach of the Kentucky women’s team from 1995-2003.
