Everything Dawn Staley said after South Carolina's win over Clemson

Following No. 1 South Carolina’s 77-45 win over rival Clemson on Wednesday, head coach Dawn Staley spoke to the media about the game. Here’s what she had to say.

On what the key to the defense was going into the second quarter

“I think sometimes when you’re getting everybody’s best at the beginning of the game, and sometimes we get out of sorts, and sometimes we’re probably more tight than we need to be. But once we settle in, I mean, we can see things coming at us, and we can make adjustments on the fly. And I thought we did a great job rotating out. I mean, they did get some clean looks off, but not probably as many as they would have liked. But it’s a well-coached basketball team that’s probably gonna do some damage in the ACC.”

On what the key was to going on a 21-0 run that carried into halftime

“I mean, just simplifying. We were just trying to do too much and play too fast. And I think Clemson made us play at their pace. It was kind of frantic for us. So when it’s like that, we just kind of just run some ball screen stuff in the middle of the floor and see if we can get downhill. I thought (Te-Hina PaoPao) did a really great job at just adjusting to that and just opening the game up with that simple play.”

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On winning a program-record 43rd consecutive game in a row and if she can enjoy that record

“I mean, I don’t think about it. I really don’t think about it. But to have two of them is pretty special. It means that our players make a commitment to team. They make a commitment to us. They make a commitment to each other. And when you do it that way, you could have this type of historical moment that you appreciate, but you’re in the middle of the season, and we’re going on the road to play one of the biggest games of our season in a few days. So, 24-hour rule, we’ll enjoy it. And then we got to move on.”

On her assessment of how things have been clicking for her team as of late

“I mean, it’s the beginning of the season. People are playing us a lot differently. Like last year we played free because we had no pressure on us. Nobody really was thinking about us, talking about us. They probably not talking about us right now either. But we’re just still trying to get our footing.

“They’re getting better. Like they are getting better, and I have no doubt that we’ll start clicking. I think our defense is probably a little bit better than our offense right now. Not a bad place to be, because we know we can hit shots. We know we can put the ball in the hole. We’re just not doing it at an efficient clip, but we’ll figure it out.”

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On the possibility of starting Ashlyn Watkins and if she’s seen that on her mind

“I mean, she should be thinking about that, and she should put us in a position to think about that, but she missed two months. Our bigs have progressed. They’ve worked really hard. So Ash has her work cut out for her. But Ash is a player, any player. A’ja Wilson came off the bench her freshman year and still got every award that she’s supposed to get. I’m not saying Ash is going to be stuck in that situation, but she’s one of our most experienced players starting.

“So the more we get (Sania) Feagin and Chloe (Kitts) and Joyce (Edwards) in a position of getting some mileage is only going to help us. And I would like to extend that to Maryam (Dauda) and Kima (Walker) and Adhel (Tac). We’re just trying to strengthen our bench. At this point, we know what Ashlyn is going to bring. The sharper we are with everybody else, the harder it is going to be to scout us.”

On if she’s seen any chance in Raven Johnson’s demeanor while going through some shooting struggles

“I mean, obviously confidence. I mean, it dampens your spirits a little bit. But, if I tell Raven, or anybody that’s in that type of situation, when you take good shots, good shots are going to find they win. I don’t think she’s forcing anything. She’s taking good shots. So, if she’s not pressing herself into taking bad shots, I’m okay. I’m okay. The ball will find his way in the hole.”

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On if she’s seen enough out of her players to give her confidence they’re going to turn the switch on with a trip to UCLA on deck

“Well, I’m always going to have confidence in our players ability. The game plan isn’t in. We haven’t talked about that. We’ll talk a little bit about it tomorrow, and then we’ll really get into it on Friday and Saturday. I mean, (Lauren Betts) is shooting 80 percent from the floor. She’s getting deep post in the paint. I mean, she’s doing it on everybody. I thought Arkansas did a really good job. And actually, she shot probably 50 percent but it wasn’t 80. So if you could shave off 30 percent of her field goal shooting with all the other stuff that we should be able to do, we’re gonna go in there confident like we do every game. And if we need to make adjustments, we’ll make adjustments.”

On what Maddy McDaniel can do to help the offense get going

“I love great point guard play. Oh, I love great point guard play. Maddy is as solid as solid can be. She is running our basketball team. She is picking and choosing opportunities to score. She’s facilitating, she’s defending, she’s gaining more and more confidence. So if she continues to play like this, we’re going to continue to find time for her. I’m overjoyed with with her play, because she’s solid. She hasn’t had a whole lot of practice time, like she just started practicing probably two weeks ago on a day-to-day basis. So we really haven’t seen her in the things that she can do. I know what she did while we recruited her and it’s even better. It’s even better.”

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