Everything Dawn Staley said previewing South Carolina’s upcoming game against No. 4 Texas
South Carolina head women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley spoke to the media on Friday to preview the team’s marquee matchup against No. 4 Texas. Here’s everything she had to say.
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On whether Texas has changed its playing style since the previous matchup
“I think they’re playing a lot more, just inspired. I think they’re running the same stuff. At this time of the season, you’re going to go with what works – you’re not going to change it.
“If I’m them, I’m going to take a little bit from it. Like, I’m not going to take a lot from it because that’s not really their team, that’s not who they’ve been. So, for us, we got to continue doing what we’re doing and clean up our turnovers, clean up our ability to rebound the basketball a little bit better, or prevent them from rebounding the ball. (It’s a) different venue, a lot at stake, so we got to play.”
On whether South Carolina has changed its approach to attacking the glass
“I used to say, ‘Rebounding isn’t a skill set. It’s a decision – you’re either going to do it, or you’re not going to do it.’ We got to put some bodies on some people. We got to control the paint. You do that by rebounding the basketball. You do that by defending as well, but it’s no good to defend as well as we defend and give up 22 offensive rebounds. That puts too much pressure on us having to defend another 20 seconds.”
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On how South Carolina plans to stop Madison Booker
“The same (as we did last time). You got to make her uncomfortable. You got to get her to think about, maybe, second-guessing some shots when she really doesn’t. All of her shots, some of them were defended, some of them were not defended. But you just got to break up the cadence and disrupt the flow of how she wants to play the game because if you allow her to just go at the speed that she likes to go at and shoot in the same cadence as she practices in an empty gym, she’s going to beat you every time.”
On whether Staley considers SEC standings implications with this matchup
“No, we talk about it. We talked about it today. This is for us controlling our own destiny versus looking back and saying, ‘We wish this person loses; we wish that person loses.’
We got to win and not worry about all the other stuff if you lose.”
On how much South Carolina’s schedule has helped younger players adjust to rowdy road environments
“(It’s helped) a great deal. This is the reason why we do play the schedule that we play, the non-conference schedule. The league itself is unforgiving; the league prepares you for this type of game, regardless. But it’s added comfort when you’ve played at UCLA, you went on the road and you play Michigan at a neutral site. We’re prepared for the environment; we’re prepared for the competition. We just have to execute.”
