SAN ANTONIO — They entered the season with everybody telling them to “get what was taken from them.” Only they knew it wasn’t going to be nearly that easy because this was a different team and a different season.
But here are the South Carolina Gamecocks, back in the women’s Final Four, so how hard could it have been?
Very hard. Not nearly as easy as they made it look.
“If we didn't have the type of season we had last year, the interactions we had within our team, I don't think you can just come here. There are too many great teams and great programs here to think you can just flip a switch and be here,” coach Dawn Staley said.
“There are people that put us in this position that allowed us to familiarize ourselves to playing at a high level. When it was time to do that, we were able to do that.”
South Carolina began the season as the country’s No. 1 team, but Staley knew how vital the two departed seniors, Ty Harris and Mikiah Herbert Harrigan, were to last season’s success. Harris was the steady, four-year starting point guard who could calm the Gamecocks in a dire moment, and Herbert Harrigan was the fiery, take-no-guff forward who could supply a kick in the hindparts when needed.
It became a beautiful blend of old and new, veteran and rookie, studded with talent throughout. The Gamecocks were a dominant team in 2019-20, the consensus No. 1 team in the country after the SEC Tournament and the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. It was a team that would surely waltz right into the Final Four.
The COVID-19 pandemic stole that chance. In the span of a text message, there was no tournament, no championship and no more of that team, because Harris and Herbert Harrigan were on their way to being top selections in the WNBA Draft.
Much of the team’s core returned, and Staley knew she would have another very talented team. She also knew the outside chatter, that this one would pick up right where the other left off, was inaccurate.
Sure, it could happen. But that didn’t mean it would.
“We’ll look a little different in that we lose a player like Ty and then the aggressiveness of Kiki. They leave a big hole,” Staley said in the preseason. “It’s a difference, but we have to try and put them in as many scenarios as we think our opponents are going to put them in.”
The Gamecocks looked fine in three straight wins to open the season, two at a tournament in South Dakota where they got their first taste of life in a quarantine bubble. Then came Dec. 3 against N.C. State, a strong opponent but a game at home.
It’s still head-scratching how the Gamecocks played as badly as they did, losing 54-46. It’s as if in one game, all that had been built from a full season before was gone as the players regressed to panicky, individual ball instead of the smooth-running machine Staley had constructed.
“We were a team I’ve never seen before. I’ve never coached a team that performed that way,” Staley said, still stunned at what she just sat through. “It was pickup basketball. I’m just not used to it.”
USC was a good team, maybe a great or elite team. It had more talent among its starting five than most programs do throughout their rosters.
Yet this season wasn’t last season. And that loss, plus the other three USC had throughout the year, cast some doubt about expectations and abilities.
“We’ve been through a lot, but we fall and we get right back up,” guard Zia Cooke said. “That’s just our main goal. Any time we’re down, any time we’re doubted, we’ve got to keep the foot on the gas.”
The Gamecocks had to realize early that when center Aliyah Boston wasn’t on the floor, they needed to find other answers. That they had no bench. That Destanni Henderson was a solid scorer but wasn’t going to be the excellent ball distributor that Harris was. That Cooke and Beal couldn’t have bad nights because they simply had to chip in.
Then came the other issues. USC couldn’t consistently make layups or free throws. Beal lost confidence in her shot and often wouldn’t attempt wide-open looks. They found answers in bench contributions from Laeticia Amihere and Lele Grissett, but then Grissett hurt her leg in the SEC Tournament and was lost for the postseason.
The Gamecocks earned a No. 1 seed in this year’s tournament and had the expected easy first-round win over 16-seed Mercer. After that, it was truly up-for-grabs. Nobody knew which USC team would show up.
Yet the bench was vital against Georgia Tech in the Sweet 16. “We've got to come up big because the bench is a big part of who we are,” Amihere said. “Being able to go deep in our bench is going to be so important, especially down the stretch right now.”
The team’s defense, amazing in spots this year, controlled Texas in the second half of an Elite Eight whipping, the Longhorns going scoreless for the final 12 minutes.
“We were a team that was driven to be where we are right now, and it’s just they wanted to go to the Final Four,” Staley said. “They want to win a national championship.”
They’re in position to do so because they keep revealing surprises that weren’t evident all year. After 30 games, the Gamecocks still aren’t what they can be, but what they are got them to the Final Four.
“That’s why it’s even scarier because it’s not there yet. We’re getting closer and closer to the goal we want to get to, and the pieces are falling into place,” Cooke said. “It’s coming, though.”
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