When the tournament brackets were announced two weeks ago most of the focus was on the top seeds in each region. But then something else jumped out: there’s Texas, more specifically, there’s Vic Shaefer, in the bottom half of South Carolina’s region. Wouldn’t it be something if they met?

Maybe we should have just Sharpie’d in that South Carolina-Texas game, because it should be clear that nothing, not even a red-hot Maryland team, can keep Schaefer and Dawn Staley from facing off in big games.

While Schaefer was at Mississippi State, he and Staley built one of the most passionate and intense rivalries in the entire sport. They combined to win every SEC regular season or tournament championship from 2015 to 2020. They played in four tournament finals and combined to finish first and second in the standings for five consecutive seasons. They also met for a national championship (played about four hours north on I-35 in Dallas).

At first, South Carolina dominated the rivalry - the national championship game was the Gamecocks’ eleventh consecutive win over the Bulldogs, a streak that began before Schaefer’s arrival. The following year, in front of the largest crowd to ever see a basketball game in the state of Mississippi, the Bulldogs finally got a win. But the Gamecocks beat the Bulldogs in the tournament final, part of a trend that saw the Gamecocks go 5-0 against the Bulldogs in title games and Staley carry a 12-3 record against Schaefer.

Since the streak ended, the series was tied 3-3, although South Carolina had two SEC tournament title game wins. From 2016 to 2020, South Carolina and Mississippi State played ten times, and seven of those games directly determined a regular season, tournament, or national champion (with another indirectly deciding). With both coaches signing loaded recruiting classes, it looked like Staley and Schaefer would dominate the SEC for a long time.

“All of it plays into it. We’ve had our battles in the SEC and Vic’s done a great job at Texas,” Staley said. “I think we played 15 times and they were all barn burners. I always look forward to playing Vic because of what he puts into his scouting reports, his game plan, and his scheme.”

“We’ve obviously had some great battles over the years and we have a lot of respect and admiration for them,” Schaefer said. “There is some familiarity there. We’ve played each other a lot over the past few years in some very big games and had some very big moments.”

The rivalry hit an abrupt pause when the lure of the Lone Star State pulled Schaefer back to his native Texas. Staley had won the war, it seemed, at least to the fan bases. Here’s how I described it last summer:

It wasn’t so much that there was conflict between the coaches as it was contrast. A black city girl from the projects of Philadelphia and a white country boy from the south. A legendary player who became a head coach while still an active WNBA player and a coaching lifer who finally got his first major head coaching job at the comparatively old age of 51. It wasn’t dislike, it was just different. And both teams weren’t just good, they were elite. Because the stakes were so high, because the games were so close and the separation between the programs so small, Schaefer and the Bulldogs became the villains.

Fans have tried to project hostility onto the rivalry between Staley and Schaefer. While they aren’t close friends, that doesn’t mean there is any acrimony.

“I have tremendous respect for Dawn. She’s a heck of a coach, she has a tremendous staff, and she does a great job. We did exchange text messages back in the season. I can’t quite recall exactly what they were over,” Schaefer said. “There’s absolutely no animosity.”

For Staley, it’s all about the competition.

“I’ve said it before, I look forward to it. He’s trying to outfox us and we’re trying to outfox him and what he comes up with,” she said. “We’ve been pretty successful because we know. It wasn’t easy by any means.”

With just one day to prepare, Schaefer may have an edge. While Staley and staff know what Schaefer likes to do, it’s a different group of players. On the other hand, Schaefer spent the last eight seasons preparing for Staley and the Gamecocks.

“My staff and I really know what’s coming and we’ll be able to convey that to our kids,” he said.

“It’s probably a great thing to have some familiarity with Texas and Vic because of our long rivalry in the SEC, especially at this stage of you get one day to prepare,” Staley said. “It’s good to know what you’re going to face because you’ve seen it so many times.”