March Madness mix: Dominant Gamecocks amid Sweet 16 parity
COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina is keenly aware that everyone remaining in the women’s NCAA Tournament field is coming after the undefeated Gamecocks — and hard.
That conviction has been boosted after two of the top four seeds in Indiana and Stanford were ousted — something that hasn’t happened since 1998. If they didn’t before, each of the Sweet 16 teams believe they can knock out the defending national champions, no matter how dominant the Gamecocks have been.
It makes for good theater — which is good for the sport.
Rebecca Lobo, the former Uconn star turned ESPN analyst, calls South Carolina’s dominance combined with Sweet 16 parity “an interesting dichotomy.”
“It’s like parallel paths, you have this overwhelming favorite to win it all, yet you have Uconn losing to Marquette or Stanford losing in the second round,” she said. “It’s an interesting time for women’s basketball.”
South Carolina with its 40 straight victories isn’t concerned about history, ratings or if the Gamecocks’ drive for a second straight championship is good for the game.
“We’re just about basketball,” coach Dawn Staley says with admiration. “We really are.”
Women’s basketball is thriving even with the Gamecocks’ dominance in the midst of rarely seen tournament chaos. South Carolina’s four-team pod in Greenville, South Carolina, is all chalk. The top-seeded Gamecocks (34-0) play No. 4 seeded UCLA on Saturday with No. 2 seed Maryland taking on thirdseeded Notre Dame.
South Carolina has three-time All-american Aliyah Boston, high-scoring Zia Cooke and a bench full of players who could start for most NCAA Tournament teams. That’s helped the Gamecocks show a relentless push toward a third straight Final Four.
If they run the table, South Carolina would be the 10th undefeated Division I women’s champion.
South Carolina is trying to join an exclusive club. The nine undefeated champions hail from just four schools: Texas, Uconn, Tennessee and Baylor:
■ Uconn, which has gone undefeated an unprecedented six times. In 1995, the Huskies went 35-0 with Lobo leading the way. Uconn went 39-0 in 2002, 2009 and 2010 with a slew of All-americans, including Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi and Swin Cash. Uconn followed those title runs by going 40-0 in 2014 and 38-0 in 2016.
■ Texas was the first perfect champion, going 34-0 in 1986.
■ Tennessee finished 39-0 in 1998 with the three “Meeks” in Chamique Holdsclaw, Tamika Catchings and Semeka Randall.
■ Baylor and Brittney Griner went 40-0 in 2012.