WBB: Gamecocks prep for Orange
The South Carolina women’s basketball team’s third straight appearance in the Sweet Sixteen is just a business trip.
“We know what’s at stake,” said senior guard and two-time SEC Player of the Year Tiffany Mitchell. “We know what’s at hand, what needs to be done to get where we need to be…we’ve been here before, now it’s just executing when we need to.”
“There’s just something about tournament time,” junior center Alaina Coates said. “It’s do or die. You win or you go home. I don’t want my seniors to go out without a bang.”
The Gamecocks will face the Syracuse Orange on Friday at 7 p.m. EDT in the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center. The game will pit one of the nation’s most balanced offenses in South Carolina against a Syracuse team that uses a stifling full-court press to force the most turnovers in the nation.
Syracuse forces 24.5 turnovers per game. Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley said, simply, a key to the game will be to “not turn it over that much” but moreover to concentrate on South Carolina’s strengths.
“We gotta get the ball inside no matter what (defense) they’re in. We have to control tempo, because they want to play fast. We just have to be calculated in what we’re doing.”
Sophomore forward A’ja Wilson trusts the team’s guards to handle the press.
“We’ll kind of let our guards handle (the press),” said the 2016 SEC Player of the Year. “We know our role, we know our place. They know if they ever need help…they can throw it up to us and we’ll go get it.”
Syracuse will also throw a dynamic backcourt at South Carolina, one that includes the nation’s active leader in 3-point field goals made, Brianna Butler. Butler and Alexis Peterson have combined for 28.7 ppg this season.
“I don’t necessarily think you can shut them down,” said Staley. “They have a lot of tools in their tool box. We just can’t allow them to get easy buckets. Everything that they do must come under duress. We just have to play for 40 minutes – the moment you take a break could be a moment in which they gain momentum.”
The two teams have a recent history. South Carolina defeated Syracuse twice last season, including a 31-point drubbing in the second round of the NCAA tournament. But Coates sees a much-improved team from a year ago.
“They’ve upped their level of aggression, especially in their press,” she said. “Last year until now, they’ve definitely caused (more) issues with teams with getting the ball down the floor and getting traps.”
After making the program’s first appearance in the Final Four last season, the players feel more comfortable as they attempt to repeat as regional champions.
“We’re experienced, we’re familiar to this,” said Mitchell.
Added Coates: “It’s definitely a great feeling making it back to the Sweet Sixteen…but we’re in the present right now. We’re trying to make it to another Final Four and possibly be national champs, but we know that at the end of the day we have to take it one game at a time and Syracuse is who is up next.”
Despite treating this as a business trip, the Gamecocks are managing to have a little fun, too.
“South Dakota is not your typical vacation spot,” Wilson said. “But we’re really enjoying it here.”
Coates said the team has had several snowball fights after Wednesday night’s blizzard.
