STALEY, WILSON STILL LEAD NO. 2 SOUTH CAROLINA
Defending champions face a tall order in quest to repeat
It’s the same everywhere Dawn Staley goes, with almost everyone she talks to, and certainly every time she logs into social media: It’s great that the South Carolina women won a national championship, she’ll hear or read, but it doesn’t really count, because the Gamecocks didn’t go through powerhouse Connecticut to do it.
After Mississippi State slayed the mighty Huskies in the semifinals last spring, South Carolina dispatched its Southeastern Conference rival 67-55 in the title game to claim the Gamecocks’ first national championship. But for some people, that win came with an asterisk.
“A lot of people are saying our championship isn’t validated because we didn’t beat UConn, but honestly, I can’t help that UConn wasn’t at the national championship game,” said Staley, entering her 10th season with USC. “But I walk by the trophy every morning, and the reality is, we’re the national champion.”
The other reality is that defending that title will be pretty darn hard.
The Gamecocks, ranked No. 2 in the preseason USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll, return one of their top four scorers. Gone to the pros are Allisha Gray, Alaina Coates and Kaela Davis, three integral pieces who combined to make up 51% of the scoring and 51% of the rebounding. Luckily for South Carolina — and unfortunately for anyone who has to game plan against her — AllAmerica forward A’ja Wilson is back and ready to prove that national title wasn’t a fluke.
“No matter what anyone says, no one can take that banner away from us,” said Wilson, who averaged 17.9 points and 7.8 rebounds and shot 59%
“A lot of people are saying our championship isn’t validated because we didn’t beat UConn, but honestly, I can’t help that UConn wasn’t at the national championship game. But I walk by the trophy every morning, and the reality is, we’re the national champion.”
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, on not having to beat UConn
from the field last season. “Of course beating UConn is a huge accomplishment in itself, but I don’t feel my national championship is inadequate because we didn’t play them (in the title game). … And now, we probably have a bigger target on our back.”
One of the most versatile players in the game, 6-3 Wilson spent the offseason working on ballhandling, passing and threepoint shooting, eager to show she doesn’t have to be in the paint to be effective. (Wilson attempted one three-pointer last season, a miss.) Staley expects Wilson to grab rebounds and push the ball down the floor herself and create problems outside of the low post.
“We can’t just put her on the block and have her flash to the high post,” Staley said. “Everybody already knows she’s gonna be in those spots. We need to move her to the wing and out on the baseline and make other teams find her.”
Wilson spent the end of July with USA Basketball at the Women’s Under-23 national team training camp, where she played with, among other medalists, point guard Sue Bird. Wilson said the experience “opened my eyes,” as Bird encouraged Wilson to be herself and not worry about fitting into the mold of any other player. That pep talk, from one of the game’s best point guards, did more for Wilson’s confidence than any national championship trophy. Now, it will be her job as one of two team captains to inject that same type of moxie into the Gamecocks newcomers.
Outside of Wilson, South Carolina doesn’t have any player who has scored consistently at the college level.
“The unknown is where the scoring is going to come from,” Staley said. “We’re going to have to defend a little bit better until we figure that out.”
Fortunately for South Carolina, there’s precedent. The Gamecocks routinely have been one of the best defensive teams in the country under Staley, a tremendous defensive player in her own day. Last season South Carolina held teams to 35.6% shooting from the field, 19th in the nation.
Though only a few weeks into practice, Staley says she has been impressed with the play of freshmen Lele Grissett, a 6-0 forward who can rebound in traffic and “explode to the rim whenever she wants,” and Bianca Jackson, a 5-10 guard that’s “long and deceptive, and really smart, ’cause she’s a coach’s kid.”
“If you look at our team, half of them haven’t experienced anything and the other half are ready for another Final Four,” Staley said. “It’s nobody’s fault that they’re young. When our freshmen first got here, they thought they’d arrived because there’s so much excitement about our team in the community and so much respect. Well, gravity brought them down.”
As for the famous White House snub, Staley has other things to think about.
“I’m over it,” she said. “It would have been great, or whatever, but at this point the season is here and I don’t really have time to think about it and we don’t have time to go. We’re gonna concentrate on getting a different invitation — an invitation to the 2018 NCAA tournament.”