Dawn Staley sees common thread in South Carolina's losses this season

South Carolina women’s basketball picked up its third loss of the season this past Sunday. Not only was it the end of a 71-game home win streak, it was the team’s first loss by 20-or-more points since Dec. 2018.

The 29-point loss to UConn was the Gamecocks’ worst scoring margin since Dec. 2008 against a Maya Moore-led UConn squad that went 39-0. 

“We just got punk’d,” Te-Hina Paopao said after Sunday’s loss to UConn. “… It’s very much embarrassing. We know that, that’s not who we are, it was very much self-inflicted as well.”

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South Carolina’s three losses so far through the 2024-25 campaign is a stark difference from last season’s undefeated run. Head coach Dawn Staley said these losses are just a part of this season’s journey.

“The journey last year didn’t have a blemish as far as a loss, but they did have blemishes,” Staley said.

While Sunday’s loss was the worst of the three this season, Staley said they all share a common thread. 

“(The) common theme is just we didn’t play a resemblance of who we are,” Staley said. “In the losses, the common thing was, whether people force us to play that way or it is self-inflicted, it really just wasn’t us.”

It’s an issue Joyce Edwards also pointed out after South Carolina’s first game back following the Texas loss.

“I feel like (against) Texas we weren’t really us. Florida, today, we were us,” Edwards said.

Opponents have outscored South Carolina in both quarters of the opening half in all three of the team’s losses this season, a stat that’s unique to those games. All three losses have also seen the Gamecocks score their lowest point totals of the season.

Whether it’s the result of a failure to control the glass, bad shooting or simply mental fatigue, Staley said her squad has to face the music of those tough days.

“I’m not shying away from it,” Staley said. “I think we do our best work when we are in this type of situation.”

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South Carolina does not seem to fall into the tendency of thinking that everything’s broken rises after a loss, Staley said. In their two games following losses this year, the Gamecocks have won by an average of 39 points.

“A loss really makes you lock in,” Edwards said. “I feel like the word after that loss (to Texas) was toughness. You don’t really know how tough are till you get punched down.”

Staley wants the team to keep moving forward through the rest of the season. Part of the team’s process in putting the past behind them comes in their “Come to Jesus” meetings.

“We apologized for our performances, and we moved on,” Staley said of their most recent meeting. “We’re not gonna stay stuck in those spaces. I’m not gonna look for things, I’m just gonna call it what it is.”

While Maddy McDaniel is one of the newer players in her first season with the program, she’s quickly seen how South Carolina responds to adversity.

“We always find it within ourselves to come together, listen to what our coaches say, listen to what each other have to say about the game and what we can do better,” McDaniel said.

If you want to change things, it starts with yourself, Staley said. The team needs to embrace the good, bad and the ugly of what the team’s journey is for 2024-25.

“Players have to step up, coaches have to step up, and if we want to accomplish the goals that we have out there, it’s gonna take a collective effort.”

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