Dawn Staley identifies winning habits South Carolina has formed

South Carolina is the best women’s college basketball team in the country with 26 wins, zero losses and a unanimous No. 1 ranking. The Gamecocks have not lost a game in over a year when they fell to two-time SEC Player of the Year Rhyne Howard and Kentucky.

Head coach Dawn Staley talked earlier this week about what makes her team so successful and have such a key mindset.

“We just form habits — winning habits,” Staley said her of South Carolina team. “We hold each other accountable. We encourage each other. This is a team that is constantly trying to get better. They do it by holding each other accountable with someone isn’t playing up to par and also just affirming when they are playing well. That’s the beauty of this team. I’m savoring. I really am because I don’t know if we’ll ever get this collection of players who really are locked in the way they’re locked in. I hope they’re rewarded.”

National Player of the Year Aliyah Boston is the team’s undisputed leader and projected No. 1 overall pick. She is averaging 13.0 points and 9.8 rebounds per game this year. Zia Cooke leads the team in scoring at 15.2 points per game.

South Carolina’s win over LSU highest-rated regular season game since 2010

South Carolina and LSU played over the past weekend in one of the most anticipated games of the winter. The Tigers also entered the game undefeated although the Gamecocks scored an 88-64 victory.

The nationally-broadcast game averaged 1.466 million viewers and peaked at 1.6 million viewers, which is the most for a women’s regular season basketball game since 2010. It bested South Carolina’s game against UConn the previous week, which drew 1.087 million viewers on Fox.