WBB: What's next?

SOUTH CAROLINA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

With the Gamecocks’ 2018-19 season now in the books, attention immediately turns to next season.

Most Gamecock fans will consider this season a disappointment, and although Dawn Staley won’t say that, she is probably secretly pleased that is the case. The standards she has established for the program are that high. After all, the Gamecocks won 20 games for the eighth straight season, play for the conference championship on the final day of the season, and made the Sweet 16 for the sixth straight season. If you had been offered all that before the season, you would have taken it.

And yet, a lot went wrong. The team never quite gelled, never quite figured out roles, despite Staley’s efforts. She likes to coach in practice and let her players figure out what to do in games, but she did more in-game coaching this season than I can ever remember seeing. Part of that is on the players. There was, clearly, a leadership void, on and off the court.

“When you look at what was on our roster, you look at the inexperience of players who had to make an impact for us consistently, the depth of our roster, the injuries at the beginning of the season, it was just hard to build that chemistry,” Staley said.

For years, South Carolina has had one or two dominant players who shaped the team with their personality and talent. Everyone knows about Aj’a Wilson and her talent, but her leadership meant almost as much. She made sure the Gamecocks had fun, she brought out everyone’s personality (remember Eli the Bear or all the nicknames she gave teammates?), but she was capable of knocking heads when she had to and keeping everyone focused. In fact, one of her best shows of leadership came when she was a freshman, and despite already being the best player on the team, she waited her turn. That doesn’t always happen (see Bone, Kelsey). Before Wilson, there was Aleighsa Welch, who had the same combination of fun and fury. Those teams had fun. And then, in the wee days of the Dawn Staley Era, there was Lakeisha Sutton. Her teams weren’t very good, but they were clearly her teams, and she willed them to more wins than their talent suggested.

In fact, if you want a comparison for this team, go back to 2013, the last time South Carolina was a #4 seed. That was the year after Sutton, now a Harlem Globetrotter, graduated. In 2012, South Carolina made its first NCAA Tournament and made a surprise run to the Sweet 16. But in 2013, there wasn’t a clear leader. The best player was Ieasia Walker, a talented all-around point guard who was the nominal leader, but whose personality was better suited to being a second banana. Sound familiar? Tyasha Harris is a fantastic point guard who does a great job leading the Gamecocks on the court, but she simply is not a dominant personality.

This year’s team often didn’t seem to be having fun. Player were often grouchy, defensive, or downright combative during interviews. Obviously what went on behind closed doors might have been different, and some of the players simply aren’t comfortable in front of a microphone, which can make her seem unhappy.

Mikiah Herbert Harrigan is one of those players. She is extremely talented, tends to play her best in big games, has a sense of when her team needs her to make a play, but abhors interviews. She doesn’t have to learn to like interviews, but she does have a chance to become a leader, as does Harris.

“They make their debut today, right now,” Staley said after the game. “This is it; this is it for them. They are seniors, and they have one more year to perform for us; so they are auditioning for who is going to be the leader of our team in this next year.”

One question is, who will be back? Seniors Bianca Cuevas-Moore, Doniyah Cliney, Alexis Jennings, and Nelly Perry are gone. None of those four were particularly strong leaders. By the end of the year, Cliney and Perry were on the edge of the rotation. Jennings’ low post scoring will be missed, and Cuevas-Moore’s - well, Bianca-ness - can’t be replaced, for better and worse. Will anyone else leave?

Te’a Cooper has another year of eligibility. However, she has been in college for four years already, and Staley has usually indicated she didn’t expect Cooper to return for a redshirt senior season. I asked Cooper in the locker room after the Baylor loss if she was coming back.

“Absolutely.”

No thoughts at all of going pro?

“No.”

Cooper has until April 9 to change her mind, and what is said in the locker room after a season-ending loss isn’t binding by any means. There could also be transfers, as there are every year. But with the nation’s top recruiting class coming in, some players might decide that if they want to play they should transfer. There will be a logjam in the post, with Laeticia Amihere and Aliyah Boston coming in. Freshman Victaria Saxton developed over the season, and was the first big off the bench by the end of the season. That leaves LeLe Grissett and LaDazhia Williams. Grissett was a key reserve last year and the first half of this season, but saw her minutes decrease. Williams had a nagging hamstring injury as a freshman and hasn’t really found a role in her two seasons. Freshman Elysa Wesolek doesn’t have the same talent level as her teammates, but the coaches like her hustle and shooting.

A lot can still change this summer, and probably will. The roster turnover, even if nobody else leaves, will be significant because of how good the incoming class is. Roles will shift, and hopefully, a leader will emerge.

“I'm pretty encouraged by the returning players and pretty encouraged by some of the future players coming into our program that we'll have enough experience if we're able to get back to this level of basketball,” Staley said.