Everything Dawn Staley said after dominant 95-55 win over Arkansas

Head coach Dawn Staley addressed the media after South Carolina’s commanding 95-55 win over Arkansas at Colonial Life Arena.

Here’s everything she said.

Applying defensive pressure on Izzy Higginbottom

“I mean, obviously she was a key to target on our scouting report. So that didn’t work out in our favor. What if you can disrupt? Really wanted to disrupt and not give her think about great looks, just trying to make her work for everything. And sometimes, when you do that its somewhat disruptive, and then somebody else ends up, you know, having a good night. But if you get out, you can take the head of the snake, usually the rest you can put yourself in the position where you want to best.”

Bouncing back after the loss to Texas

“Nothing. I mean, we don’t like to lose obviously. We don’t like to lose the way we’ve lost the three games, and there’s a certain focus to just get back to our habits, and hopefully we can continue that as we regular season comes into the close, and we got some games in which we got to play well in order for us to win.”

You mentioned an identity you had in your head for the team, did you see it tonight?

“I thought we were more like ourselves when it came to just the toughness piece of it, the extra efforts on the boards, the loose balls. I thought we wanted to win all of them. It wasn’t any of them that we just allowed to just happen without some resistance. So I was happy about that. You know Chloe played well. Chloe played like Chloe. Fagin did her job defensively. Joyce continues to do play consistently. You know, I thought MiLaysia played really efficiently, sharing the basketball, making incredible passes and plays. Tessa saw the ball go in, Breezy saw the ball go in. I was happy for Maryam. You know, obviously it’s hard playing your former team, but I thought she looked more relaxed in like any time during the season. And she had reason to kind of be nervous about playing against her former team. But I just thought she gave us a really good minute to put her in early to see what she would look like, and she just looked calm. And I hope that this performance will allow her to help us, because she there’s something there. There’s some skills there. She rebounds the basketball. It’s just sometimes she probably wants to play perfectly and wants to do all the right things, and sometimes that gets in the way. But I’m hoping this is it, that she can end up helping us somewhere, you know, down the line.

What do you think of MiLaysia’s play and growth?

“I mean, MiLaysia has a real good understanding of what needs to happen, she really does. I think in the moment, I don’t think she can help herself at times, but I thought today was just great, like they were timely, they were what she was supposed to do in that situation. She didn’t, she didn’t force a shot. She dumped it off a few times. She’s very, very unselfish. So I just thought she just met the moment. I think the biggest thing that she’s doing is defending, like defending she’s competing on the other side of the floor. So, you know, when she puts herself in the position where she can do that, and it worked out like it worked out all that she had to do any turnovers in this particular game, very efficient on the floor. She’s grown like she really is growing. She’s learning. She’s growing. She’s more active in practice. She’s using her voice in practice. So it’s always a good thing when a young player starts to utilize their voice and they understand their power.”

Win tickets to USC-Clemson baseball (Sunday game in Columbia)

Does MiLaysia have moves that surprise you and do you find yourself wondering what’s going to happen next?

“I do, I mean I missed almost two or three verses because the official. I was sitting, and the official was like right in my viewpoint. So I missed a couple of dumps that she had to Joyce, like, I know she’s going to do something. Like, if she is on the break, we pass the ball up to her, she’s going to do something. I just hope it’s something that’s positive, that we can get a bucket of point something, either way, the crowd’s going to do their thing and be, you know, really, really supportive of whatever she does. So I just, you know, it’s fun to just watch her learning grow like, like she is probably just a shell. She’s grown so much just from practice, just her attention to detail and practice her communication and knowing that, you know, she and if she takes an ill advised shot, she’ll just look she’s not a no bad shot. She’ll say something like that where, you know, last year, she would take it and she she’d be like, I can make that, you know, like, whether it’s good or bad, but you know, when you communicate a little bit different, you have an understanding. And I know I can’t wait to see the finished product of where I don’t really have to say anything to her. She just knows. So that’s that’s pretty cool. But it was a good game for, like, all of our players, you know, Raven stat line is, it isn’t great, but some of the things that she’s doing is what she’s working on for for her that’s going to end up helping us this season.”

High rebounds — how did y’all plan to establish yourself in the paint?

“I mean, that’s the key. You win the paint. You put yourself in a position to increase your chances of winning. One is just make making layups. That’s one, just make layups. Two is, you know, rebounding. I thought Chloe really spearheaded her effort to go in there and get some rebounds. I knew she was gonna have a good game today. Like, I think Chloe’s been just trying to play consistent for us play the right way, like I put a lot of pressure on Chloe. I do put a lot of pressure because I feel like she’s the player that can make really great basketball decisions and plays, and when she doesn’t do that for us, we’re a different basketball team. So you know, when you explain it to it like that, I think it it clears her head so she can go out there and do the things that we need her to do in order for us to, you know, have success out there on the court.”

Emotional maturity in this years team with losses

“Yeah, I mean, they were mad. She [MiLaysia] was mad at the beginning. And you know, you can be mad and hold it in, or you can be mad and just kind of voice your opinion about things. And she was one that voiced her opinion. And it’s good to hear it from a young player. It’s good to hear it from a competitor, like a competitor doesn’t like anything about something, what happened, not, not one thing you know. You know you can, you can draw some positives from it. But bottom line is, you know, competitors doesn’t like to be in that situation where you know we are as talented, right? Like, I’ve never been a part of a a loss like that with as much talent like ever. So that was the first for us. And she felt it and she voiced it. She’s practicing like she didn’t like it, and everybody else is practicing like they didn’t like it. And hopefully we won’t ever see that type of performance again.”

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