South Carolina women's basketball: Five Things to Watch - NCAA Tournament First Round

South Carolina opens the NCAA tournament on Friday. Find out how to watch and what to watch for in the two games in Columbia.

1. Let the main thing be the main thing
South Carolina rode its defense to the SEC tournament championship. Although Tennessee Tech probably won’t present the same offensive challenge as Texas, Oklahoma, and Vanderbilt, it’s important for South Carolina to come out with the same intensity to set the tone.

It’s something Dawn Staley drills into her team throughout the season. 

“We are creatures of habit in how we prepare,” Staley said. “Whether we’re preparing for Tennessee Tech or preparing for Texas in a championship game in the SEC tournament doesn’t change.”

South Carolina took it to heart last season when it blew out a decent Presbyterian team. That served as a springboard to the title run. 

Tennessee Tech is taking a similar approach. Coach Kim Rosamond said the Golden Eagles have to approach the game like a boxing match and break it up into rounds or segments, then focus on one segment at a time. 

“You hang in and in those first couple of rounds, you don’t get knocked out,” she said. “You’ve got to avoid getting knocked out in those first couple of rounds. I have full confidence that our kids are going to come in, and they’ve not backed down from a challenge all year. And we understand who they are, but we also understand who we are.”

2. Crowd size
South Carolina is going for the all-time single-season attendance record this weekend. If the Gamecocks can get an average of around 13,500 fans this weekend, they will have the record.

It would be a nice bragging point, but attendance also matters in the big picture. 

Every few years there is a push to move the first two rounds to neutral sites. Staley is not among them, although she is open to the conversation.

It’s a complicated issue that would take much more space than this to go through. But the gist is that many coaches like Staley would rather play in packed arenas in the first two rounds than empty neutral sites.

“If there is bad attendance on campuses in the first and second round, people won’t want to move to neutral sites,” she said. “But we were charged with bringing more people on our campus in seats, and then you’re rewarded.”

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3. Scouting the Golden Eagles
Tennessee Tech dominated the OVC with an 18-2 record, sweeping the regular season and tournament titles, and finishing the season on a 17-game winning streak. The conference season started out slowly, but after a loss at Eastern Illinois on January 9 dropped Tennessee Tech to 3-2 in the conference, the Golden Eagles turned it around.

“We kind of had a come-to-Jesus moment on January 9, and we all kind of realized, okay, we all need to get on the same page,” Anna Walker said. “We all knew we were bought in, but we knew that it was going to take another step for us to get to what we wanted in the end, and ultimately, that was a championship. But I think our practices changed, our focus on the mission changed, and I think that’s what ultimately led us to where we are now.”

The Golden Eagles rely on balance and experience. Six players average at least 9.5 points, led by fifth-year seniors Keely Carter (12.3 points), Peyton Carter (11.5 points), and Anna Walker (9.9 points and 6.5 rebounds). Junior Reghan Grimes leads the way with 12.9 points. 

“The unselfishness of this basketball team has been really, really special,” Rosamond said. “We’ve got six players that average in double figures, and nobody cares who gets theirs on any given night. This team in an era where, with social media, it’s all about them, but to get a group of young women to prioritize winning above everything else — you know how rare that is. And this team has done it as well as any team that I’ve ever been part of.”

Rosamond went on to say that she is fully aware of the challenge ahead. Only one 16 seed has ever beaten a one seed. She wants to keep things as simple as possible.

“Basketball, we make it hard, but it’s really simple, you know?” Rosamond said. “We’ve got to defend, we’ve got to rebound, and we’ve got to take care of the basketball. Now, that’s going to be much harder tomorrow than, probably, than it’s been all season. But we’ve got to just make sure mentally that they understand and they’re ready to embrace that moment.”

4. Also appearing are Utah and Indiana
Get ready for a lot of red.

Both the Utes and Hoosiers took circuitous and unlikely paths to the tournament. Utah coach Lynne Roberts resigned three games into the season to take a job with the Los Angeles Sparks. Gavin Peterson, who was entering his tenth season as an assistant at Utah, took over and two weeks later led Utah to an upset of then-no. 3 Notre Dame, the highest-ranked win in program history.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to achieve,” Petersen said. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be taking over at the University of Utah. I thought I would have to go to a mid-major program and just learn and grow as a head coach there. So this was not on the bingo card.”

Indiana has had an up-and-down season. There were bad losses to Harvard and Butler, a 39-point game against North Carolina, and a 2-4 stretch in February. But there was also a win over top-ten Ohio State, and Indiana took Southern Cal to the wire twice.

“I feel like this year we had a lot of ups and downs,” Garzon said. “We learned to know each other. I feel like we come in (Friday) very confident. We have a great game plan and I feel like our preparation was great.”

5. Scouting the Utes and Hoosiers
Beyond the red color scheme, both teams share a similar philosophy: they shoot.

Utah is led by Gianna Kneepkens, who is top-30 in the nation in scoring and top-15 in three-point shooting. Kneepkens missed most of last season with a broken foot but returned to average 19.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.1 assists.

6-3 Mayè Tourè provides the inside punch, averaging 13.0 points and a team-high 6.8 rebounds. But the Utes want to shoot. They took 806 threes this season, sixth-most in the country, and Kneepkens is one of three players shooting over 40% from behind the arc.

“We feel like we have great defenders. We only gave up about 64 points this year,” Teri Moren said. “I think sometimes what gets missed is how good our guys are on the defensive side of the ball, how good our preparation is.”

Indiana isn’t quite as proficient. The Hoosiers only took 665 threes, 48th in the nation. But they still hit 36.7%, just a few spots behind Utah. 

“We know they’re a great team,” Kneepkens said. “They can shoot the ball well. They move the ball well. So we know what’s ahead of us, but we’re prepared.”

Yarden Garzon shoots 41.5% from three and leads Indiana’s balanced attack with 14.5 points and 5.3 rebounds. Senior Sydney Parrish averages 11.9 points and 5.4 rebounds, Shay Ciezki averages 11.6 points, and Karoline Striplin averages 10.1 points.

The Ws
Who: #8 Utah vs #9 Indiana
When: 1:30 ET, Friday, March 21
Where: Colonial Life Arena, Columbia, SC
Watch: ESPN2

Who: #1 South Carolina vs #16 Tennessee Tech
When: 4:00 (approx) ET, Friday, March 21
Where: Colonial Life Arena, Columbia, SC
Watch: ESPN
Sendoff: 1:45 p.m. at the Marriott Columbia Hotel (1200 Hampton St.)

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