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

by:Mingo Martinabout 10 hours
South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley. Katie Dugan | GamecockCentral.com
South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley. Katie Dugan | GamecockCentral.com

Dawn Staley spoke to the media after South Carolina women’s basketball’s 82-65 win over the Vanderbilt Commodores on Sunday.

Here is everything she said.

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Dawn, In that third quarter Vanderbilt scores a few points and then Joyce seemed to take control. How nice is it to have her in addition to what you already have?

“I mean Joyce (Edwards) is a difference maker. She is someone that, coming off the bench, with the offensive firepower she brings, defensively firepower that she brings and then you and her competitiveness to it, she’s a really really good player that we’re lucky to have. She’s finding her spots in a game where she can truly be effective. Running the floor is one of them.”

Was Mikayla Blakes at the top of your scouting list defensively?

“Yeah she’s special. I mean, to come in our league and to have done what she’s done, I don’t know if there’s a bigger offensive impact. She’s very, very efficient and that’s what we try to do. We try to make her as inefficient as possible.

“Yeah, she’s gonna score points, but we wanted to make it difficult for her to score those points and I thought we did a pretty good job. I thought we made her defend and that’s part of the process of when someone is capable of scoring a whole lot of points, they cant relax on defense. You got to make them guard and I thought we did a pretty good job of that.”

What was the adjustments you made at halftime?

“We really didn’t make any adjustments. What we did was make layups. We didn’t make as many layups as we did as we did in the first half. I thought we made multiple efforts in just rebounding and defending.”

What did you feel like you saw from your team in transition?

This league will eat you up if you turn the ball over. I thought we turned the ball over trying to throw it back at them underneath their basket. I think they got seven points in the first half with us doing that, so we have to clean some of the stuff up that we were self inflicting. I thought we did a good job not giving easy buckets.”

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Are you preparing MiLaysia Fulwiley to be a pro, and most importantly, be better?

“I think MiLaysia is a pro. We’re just giving her the tools to operate in that space because it’s not just one way. You got to be multifaceted when it comes to playing at that elite level.

“Talent wise, she’s got the talent. Now is the crux of playing in the league, how do you handle certain situations, starting or not starting, when you go 0-4, you got to defend. So its all those things that we’re adding to what she’s already brought to us because she wants to be a pro and if she wants to be a pro there are things we have to add. We’re not trying to take things away from her, we just want to add what she already brought to us.”

What do you make of the job Shea (Ralph) has done at Vanderbilt and the programs growth?

“She’s done great. One, its just talent. We all know Shea can coach, then its about getting talent. Blakes helps, (Khamil) Pierre helps, they are the cornerstone of their future and I do think people are going to want to play with them.

“And she’s right there, I think she’ll be a tournament team no doubt. I know she’s not getting the results as far as the games but I think her body of work shows that she should be part of the (field of) 68”

As someone that has built a program up to that level, what are some of the intangibles of getting a program to this level?

“It’s about talent. It’s solely about talent, its about culture, its about chemistry, and its about getting your kids to believe. And I don’t think they lack belief at all.

“And to win a national championship it takes more than two players, or three players, or four players it takes a good eight or nine players understanding their roles, thriving in their roles and actually shutting out some of the noise that can interfere with your progression towards winning a national championship.”

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