Dawn Staley reveals what's different about this year's South Carolina team

Things will look different on the floor for the 2024-25 South Carolina women’s basketball team. Even still, coach Dawn Staley is excited to see how this team proceeds through the season.

The most noticeable difference will be borne out of an absence, as dominant big Kamilla Cardoso is gone, now playing in the WNBA. After dominating last season by running the game through her, Staley and her team will need to take a bit of a different tack in this year.

“I mean each team has its own challenges and each team is trying to find out what their identity is,” Staley said. “And for us, we’re trying to figure it out not having a dominant big and it looks a little different and it feels a little different but collectively, I like what we’re bringing to the table. Like I like the fact that every single one of our bigs is different than the other and I like that you’re going to have to plan for our entire roster, it’s going to be 13 players that you’re going to have to prepare for. You’re going to have to say something about 13 players. It’s hard. It’s hard to prepare for 13 players. So I was just telling our team that.”

And on top of the depth, Staley is also pushing this team to lean on each other and really thrive as a unit where no one or two players is expected to shoulder most of the burden each game.

“I also told them that we’re a team,” Staley said. “We’re a united team where some nights people have it going on but most nights you’re going to see it all like it is now where you’ve got kinda even minutes and even stat lines. So it’s pretty cool. I hope we can hold on to that and I hope that if we have somebody that’s just having an extraordinary game, that we keep feeding them. I mean on any given night, I think anybody can score 30 points.

“You give Pao [Te-Hina Paopao] enough shots, she can score 30 points. You give Joyce [Edwards] enough shots, she can score 30 points. Lay [MiLaysia Fulwiley] did it easily. She’s at almost 24.”

And a year removed from a flawless 38-0 campaign and national title, Staley is mostly focused on this team not losing sight of who they are as they try to repeat as champs, leaning on each other and their depth as the roster re-tools.

“We have that kind of team and I just hope the purity of who we are continues throughout the rest of the season,” Staley said.