South Carolina captured its sixth SEC Tournament title in seven seasons with an historic win over Georgia. Time to empty out the notebook from Greenville.

I’m not going to lie, I was exhausted following a weekend of commuting to Greenville. I wanted to post this yesterday, but sleep got the better of me. In an act of contrition, I made this a two-parter with about 1,500 words each.

Not that it was in doubt, but South Carolina clinched an NCAA Tournament berth with Sunday’s win. More importantly, South Carolina likely clinched a number one seed. The Gamecocks were the fourth one seed in the last NCAA bracket reveal, but that did not take into account South Carolina’s loss to Texas A&M.

South Carolina probably needed to reach the championship game to hold onto a top seed, but winning it all should make Selection Monday much more comfortable. South Carolina got three wins over tournament teams on the way to the title, including wins over NET top-25 teams Tennessee and Georgia for a nice resume boost.

This is the tenth straight NCAA bid for South Carolina (including qualifying for last year’s tournament that was canceled). South Carolina also made the WNIT in 2011, the year before the current NCAA streak started, giving Dawn Staley 11 postseason bids in her 13 seasons at South Carolina.

In the 27 seasons between when the NCAA tournament began (1982) and Staley’s arrival, South Carolina made the postseason 11 times: eight NCAA Tournaments and three WNITs.

It’s difficult to put the early years of women’s basketball into context - the AIAW was the governing body before the NCAA tournament began in 1982 - but it’s fair to count South Carolina’s four AIAW tournament appearances from 1978-81 as on par with the NCAA Tournament, plus the 1979 WNIT championship. That gives South Carolina 16 total postseason appearances PS (pre-Staley).

Thus ends the current contract with Greenville. The women’s SEC tournament will be held in Nashville next year (the men move to Tampa), and then after that…? I honestly expected an announcement last weekend. The men’s tournament has Nashville booked through 2035, so that isn’t an option for the women’s tournament. Last year’s tournament in Greenville had the sixth-best attendance in tournament history, and the best outside Nashville or Chattanooga. The total tournament attendance was 45,093. That is the fourth-highest total in tournament history, and largest for a site other than Nashville. Even this season with limited attendance, the crowd for the final was impressive. South Carolina by far had the most support, but from what I saw Georgia was second (better than even Tennessee).

It would be shocking if the tournament doesn’t come back. Two of the best fan bases are 90 minutes (Gamecocks) and three hours (Lady Vols) away, with Georgia two hours away. Mississippi State fans further away, but have proved they will make the trip. It’s also a convenient 90 minute drive from ESPN’s SEC Network headquarters in Charlotte. Also, Greenville seems to be a smooth experience for everyone involved. The longest delay I had was each day when I forgot to have my ID ready to pick up my credential. “At least you are consistent (and stupid),” the attendant said, rolling her eyes ever so slightly.

South Carolina moved into a tie with Vanderbilt for the second-most SEC Tournament titles (6), behind Tennessee (17). However, Tennessee’s best stretch was five titles in seven years or six in eight years (all from 2005 to 2012). Any way you cut it, nobody has dominated the SEC Tournament like South Carolina has over the last seven seasons. Throw in a two seed in 2019 (quarterfinal loss) and a one seed in 2014 (semifinal loss), and it has been quite a stretch.

There is still plenty of work to do: Tennessee’s stretch from 1998-2005 remains the gold standard, and even that cuts off two of the Lady Vols’ three straight national championships.Over that span Tennessee had four conference losses over eight seasons and won seven straight regular season titles, two tournament titles, and three national titles (and, once again, I cut off Tennessee’s 1996, 1997, 2007, and 2008 national championship teams). So… SEC tournament dominance: South Carolina; everything else: still Tennessee.

Staley now has a career coaching record of 499-182. Barring a monumental upset, she will reach 500 career wins in a couple of weeks. That’s a lot of wins, but it’s also less than half as many as all-time winningest coach (and Staley mentor) Tara VanDerveer’s 1,116.

Just for fun, VanDerveer and Geno Auriemma (two wins behind VanDerveer) are about 16 years older than Staley. Over the last ten seasons Staley is averaging 28.5 wins per season (a number artificially lower because of the pandemic). That would be another 456 wins over the next 16 seasons. If you boost the numbers a little (I started in 2013-14 and added expected wins for non-pandemic 2020 and 2021), the average is more like 31 wins per season. That comes out to 496 more wins, meaning Staley could be knocking on the door of 1,000 wins in 2037. Since you asked, VanDerveer began her coaching career at 25, Auriemma at 31, and Staley at 30. Geez… what have I been doing with my life?

On Tuesday the Naismith Trophy High School All-America teams were announced. South Carolina’s signees Raven Johnson, Saniya Rivers, Sania Feagin, and Bree Hall each earned honors. Johnson and Feagin were named to the first team. Rivers was named second team, and Hall was named honorable mention.

The high school player of the year will be announced Wednesday.

South Carolina’s biggest concern now becomes the health of LeLe Grissett. Grissett suffered an apparent right foot injury early in the fourth quarter against Georgia. She started to drive and fell to the court untouched. She limped to the sideline and then collapsed. No announcement has been made, but Grissett was on crutches after the game. Tuesday morning posted a clip on Instagram from a hospital bed with the caption, “Wish me luck.” She has since deleted the post.

Grissett is South Carolina’s most important reserve, as her ability to play multiple positions allows South Carolina to create mismatches. Grissett averaged 6.9 points and 4.2 rebounds on 50% shooting this season.

South Carolina’s 9-0 run to finish the third quarter proved to be the difference against Georgia, and it was keyed by the most unlikely player. Brea Beal had played her usual strong defense in Greenville, but prior to that run her offense had vanished. She was just 2-14 shooting for the tournament with eight points, and her two previous shots were the sort of ugly misses that come from a lack of confidence.

But she kept playing hard. She earned a free throw by running the court, and then ran the court again for a layup. Then Beal helped force a turnover and then drilled a pullup jumper to end the quarter. Beal only had seven points, but combined with four rebounds and three blocks and her usual stout defense, she made a huge difference.

Georgia’s Jenna Staiti was arguably the second best center in the SEC behind Boston. She made second-team All-SEC, averaged 14.5 points and 8.1 rebounds and actually blocked more shots than Boston. But she has a terrible time playing against Boston.

Staiti isn’t a slouch. She had 10 points, five rebounds, and three blocks Sunday despite early foul trouble. She had 15 points, nine rebounds, and three blocks earlier this season, and 16 points, six rebounds, and three blocks in last year’s tournament. Her only dud was a four point, two rebound game in Athens last season when South Carolina’s transition game and early lead made Staiti a non-factor. She’s averaging 11.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks against South Carolina. But Boston somehow has her way against Staiti.

Boston had 27 points, 10 rebounds, and four blocks in the title game. Earlier in the year, she messed around and had a triple double by the end of the third quarter with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 blocks. Last season Boston had nine points, 10 rebounds, and four blocks in the tournament quarterfinals and 15 points and six rebounds in the first meeting, when Staley decided to see what happened if she used Boston exclusively as a jump shooter. That comes out to 16.8 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 4.5 blocks per game, despite basically only playing three quarters in the first three games.

If you suspect the last three paragraphs are just an excuse to use this quote from Staley, you are right, because it is gold, Jerry, gold.

“That’s a lot of mass, mass on mass with Aliyah and Jenna Staiti,” she said. “They're super competitive. They're highly skilled. They shoot threes. They can shoot the midrange. They’ve got great footwork in the paint. It was just who was going to gain an advantage.”

Advantage: Boston.

Stay tuned for Part 2...