Everything Dawn Staley said after South Carolina's loss to UCLA

South Carolina head women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley spoke to the media following the team’s 77-62 loss to UCLA on Sunday. Here’s everything she had to say.

[GamecockCentral: $1 for 7 days and 50% off first year]

On what UCLA did to control tempo in the first half

“They played well. I mean, they were hitting on all cylinders. They actually executed our our game plan to a tea. I think we did a great job on (Lauren) Betts, but we got killed by everybody else. And we’ll learn a valuable lesson. I like what we did on Betts, and then we got to figure out how we control everybody else and not allow them to get as many open looks (or) hit as many open looks, contested looks. It was a great game, great atmosphere and great opportunity for UCLA to knock us off.”

On UCLA setting the tone early

“I thought they had it going on on both sides of the basketball. We didn’t adjust. I thought we cut the lead to seven with the ball. (We) missed a chippy in the paint – could have been a run for us. But they never really let us back in the game.”

On whether Staley anticipated South Carolina would lose to UCLA

“I mean, you play the game. Obviously, we knew we were going to play a really good UCLA team. (We) didn’t anticipate them shooting the way they shot the basketball. But yes, I thought some good stuff came out of it – like, some really good stuff. Obviously, our shot selection is something that we are dealing with on a daily basis – once we get that under control. But I thought we had some really good contributions from people that don’t play a whole lot, that we could probably give a little bit more minutes to.

“We’ll figure it out. I mean, we’re in transition from having a dominant big to not having a dominant big and figuring out how we can incorporate our bigs more with the basketball a little bit. So, we’ll figure it out. We got to get comfortable with it. Our bigs have to get comfortable with doing it a little bit differently. But I think it was great for the game. We just told our our team, ‘This is our second loss in two years.’ So, no, it doesn’t feel good, but yes, we have to figure things out a little bit.”

[Win two tickets to the South Carolina-Duke WBB game]

On Staley’s message to South Carolina players after the loss

“My message was, ‘This is what we usually do the teams. It doesn’t feel good when you’re on the receiving the end of it, but you also know you got beat by a great team that’s achieving on both sides.’ That was beautiful basketball by UCLA – beautiful on both sides. And I’m on the opposite side of it, but you can’t help but to love up on it because it was fluid on both sides of the ball. They wanted it. I thought our kids fought. But we ran into a buzzsaw today.”

On the performance of UCLA’s Janiah Barker

“(She was) great – I mean, great. Janiah Barker is a great addition to their team. I thought she played more disciplined. There’s no wiggle room for her to do anything else besides do what coach asks you to do, and once she does, it produces big wins like this.”

On what makes Betts so challenging to play against

“She commands so much attention – not just the player that’s guarding her. Everybody else has to sink in on her ability to just be super efficient. How efficient was she? 5-for-8 – what’s that? What percent is that? Sixty-two (percent) is not 79 – we wanted it under 50. But even with her being under 50, everybody else, I thought did, a really great job. It was fun watching her on film. I was hoping that she could come off with the bench and not get as many minutes because she’s the one that was really, really impressive.”

[New! GamecocksW newsletter! Don’t rely on search engines and social media for your South Carolina women’s basketball information.]

On UConn head women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma becoming the NCAA’s all-time wins leader

“Geno (Auriemma) and (assistant coach) Chris Dailey have been servant leaders in our sport. They’ve been the gold standard in college basketball. For someone that’s dedicated their loves to young people and our game, it’s only fitting that they’re the ones that are holding the throne of being the winningest coaches in our game.”

On whether Staley noticed if South Carolina was playing in a carefree way

“Our players have been focusing on a game like this. I thought we had really, really good prep days for this – they were locked into it, felt good about it. Yesterday (was) our last prep day for it. It’s the other games that doesn’t have a number next to the team that, sometimes, we get a little unfocused. But taking the loss will help us focus on anybody that we play.”

On what impressed Staley about how UCLA defended South Carolina

“They were relentless. They didn’t allow us to get any clean looks; they ran us off the screens. I mean, they did a great job of just locking in and playing 40 minutes of locked-in defense.”

On Tessa Johnson’s performance

“Tessa (Johnson)‘s a player. I mean, obviously, she’s knocking down some threes for us to get us a little bit of momentum. We needed a lot more than Tessa today. But (I’m) proud of Tessa. Tessa’s a player that is going to have an extraordinary career for us, and (I) look forward to helping her continue to develop.”

Discuss South Carolina women’s basketball on The Insiders Forum!