Everything Dawn Staley said previewing South Carolina's upcoming game against Vanderbilt

South Carolina head women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley spoke to the media on Friday to preview the team’s upcoming matchup against Vanderbilt. Here’s everything she had to say.

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On the keys to stopping Vanderbilt’s offense

“To defend. We have to play our defense. We have to be disciplined. They got really, really great scorers that we have to disrupt, that we have to cut the production down – any amount of clean looks, any amount of less free throws. So, that’s what we got to do. I mean, it’s not rocket science – it is our will against their will.”

On stopping Mikayla Blakes

“It’s hard to stop when you got the greenest of green lights. You’re unafraid. You have no fear of missed shots; you have no fear of turning the ball over. So, it’s hard when you’re running up against a player like that – you just got to make it difficult. You got to control what you can control. You can control if you’re fouling her or not; you can control whether or not you’re giving her clean looks. Those are the things that we can control, and we just try to get her to play inefficient basketball.”

On South Carolina’s energy following a bounce-back win over Arkansas

“It’s good. We’re focused. I mean, we’re not perfect, but we’re focused. When we have the level of focus that we have, we’re going to be disciplined on both sides of the basketball, and we’re going to play cleaner basketball. So, it’s easy for everyone to see on both sides of the ball.”

On the importance of South Carolina’s defense leading its offense

“When you can steal some points, when you create them from defense, it just helps all the way around. It helps put a team back on their heels. It helps not put so much pressure on your half-court offense to have to execute. And then, defensively, I think it helps you lock in even more because you want that feeling of easy baskets.”

On Staley’s decision to announce that she had written a book, titled “Uncommon Favor”

“One, I just got tired of people asking me. Two, I had to do it before I forgot everything. Three, I think the season that we had last year made me really thankful of what I described as the ‘uncommon favor’ career. And I think it was only fitting to put that in context of my life and share it with people.”

Win tickets to Senior Day, South Carolina-Kentucky women’s basketball game

On where writing a book stacks up with Staley’s previous accomplishments

“Not at the top of it. I mean, it forces you to think hard. It’s exhausting – like, mentally exhausting. And I don’t like to feel that way. I like to be exhausted from a win. Writing a book, you got to think about a lot of things and who were the characters that played. And sometimes, you lose that in getting older. But the good stuff is in it – like, things that were impactful to my life, just starting out growing up in North Philly in the projects. Everything has a correlation back to that. Everything has a correlation back to my mother; everything has a correlation to the successes. It was just because of the foundation that I’ve had.”

On how a strong performance against Arkansas can build Maryam Dauda’s confidence

“What it does for me is, just, I know that she can calm down and play focused basketball. She’s a tough kid – like, she rebounds the basketball. She’s tough. And out of a game that, I think, she probably should have had the most nerves was yesterday, and she looked the most calm all season long.

“We watched it, we gave her her flowers in film today, and I hope that she feels that and wants to bottle that up and display it again. Because I do think she stretches the floor like no other post player on our team. She rebounds consistently – that’s what she does when she’s been in the game. And she defends. So, hopefully, we’ll be able to put her in a position where she can she can help us.”

On how much better South Carolina’s offense can be when Bree Hall takes more shots

“It helps us tremendously to have a fourth or fifth scorer out there on the floor. I think Breezy’s (Bree Hall) greatest gift to us, really, is her ability to catch and shoot. She’s very efficient at that. And I think she’s getting a lot better coming off ball screens and reading what should happen. But, most importantly, Breezy has to be definitive in whatever she does. If you want to shoot, shoot. You want to come off the screen and shoot? Shoot. You want to come off the screen and pass? That’s a little bit of a setup where the defense has to dictate that. But if she’s aggressive, I love an aggressive Breezy Hall.”

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