The South Carolina Gamecock’s women’s basketball team is on a mission
COLUMBIA, S.C. — This season, women’s college basketball is at the peak of excitement with so many schools vying to be the national champion. It’s a strong field with talented players across the country that are being guided by expert coaches all with the hopes of being crowned the best. One program that aims at nothing less is the South Carolina Gamecocks led by the decorated head coach Dawn Staley.
The Hall of Fame coach has been with the Gamecocks since 2008 and has experienced the highs and the lows that the job has to offer. After a commendable performance last season in which the Gamecocks reached the Final Four and finished the year with a SEC title and a 26-5 winning record, the hunger to succeed is a craving that she wants to satisfy.
At the start of this season, she asked her talented group what they wanted to achieve. A young voice from the group responded that they wanted to win the national championship.
“You want personal achievement, but when it’s all said and done, we want to win a national championship,” Staley said. “It’s from the mouth of a baby to the ears of everyone else. I hope that’s what we settle on.”
The last time the Gamecocks won a national title was back in 2017 where they went on an impressive run defeating the No. 3 seed Florida State in the Elite Eight, No. 2 Stanford in the Final Four and No. 2 Mississippi State in the title game. They have not reached a title game since then, but the outcome might change this season.
Every member of the Gamecocks’ Final Four squad from last year is returning and they start the season ranked atop the AP Top 25 for the second consecutive year.
“We have all the key ingredients, and we just have to work on the details,” Staley said when asked about her strength in roster depth. “The margin of error is that small of a layup and a put-back. It’s that small, so we’re working from that vantage point rather just broader things.”
It’s clear that with the added pressure of being ranked the best team in the nation comes an elevated responsibility to perform by exceeding those expectations.
“It’s all familiar pressure,” Staley said. “When it’s familiar pressure, you know how to handle the expectations of it. It’s just routine. The same habits that we ask our players to form that we have as a coaching staff to stay on task and get our team better every day.”
So far, that proclamation is ringing true as the Gamecocks are undefeated after seven games in which they faced some stern opposition from the likes of No. 9 ranked Oregon, No. 4 ranked NC State and No. 2 ranked Connecticut.
It’s a season of championship expectations for the South Carolina Gamecocks. They have the talent to carry them to victory and the coaches to help guide them to glory. They were so close last season that, this year, it feels as though this returning team wants to avenge their feelings of frustration and disappoint by lifting the national title, a sentiment echoed from the budding freshman to the veteran coaches. Everyone is on the same page with the same objective in mind.
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