South Carolina women's basketball: Everything Dawn Staley said ahead of South Carolina's game against Tennessee

Dawn Staley spoke to the media on Sunday to preview no. 2 South Carolina’s game at no. 17 Tennessee on Monday night. Here’s everything she said. 

Tennessee plays a unique style. Have you ever seen a style like that and how do you attack it?
I’ve seen the style, not by any team in our league. They’re very consistent and persistent with that. They make you adjust, which is good. It’s good for our league – it’s good for different styles of play. It’s good if you have a team like that in the NCAA tournament it’s good to have played that style. 

They’ve been in a lot of close games. What are you expecting in this matchup?
I gotta think it’s going to be a close game. It’s at their place. It’s hard to win on the road. The different style will probably take a little bit to adjust to. We’ve got to make them adjust to us. The whole objective is for us to adjust to them. Then somewhere in the middle a team is going to have a run. I just hope it’s us.

What have you noticed from Kim Caldwell in her first season?
It’s great. It’s a great uptempo style. It is fluid. Anybody has an opportunity to shoot threes. They space you out. It’s just really different. They rebound the basketball as well. They pressure you. There are certain things we need to take care of. The ball is one. Two is defending our turnovers if we do turn the ball over. Three is obviously transition and the three-point line. Four is we’ve got to defend. Although you’re not going to disrupt them so much because they space you out, we’ve got to handle being able to guard one-on-one. 

After an emotional game against LSU, what’s the energy level like for the team?
There’s a lot of physical fatigue and mental fatigue that comes with playing a team like LSU. So it’s a little bit of that but we’ve got to fight through. These are the separator days where some people may just hit it and keep grinding it out. I’m more of a rest is equally as important as working out as long as you’re getting it with other things. Like our film sessions have to be very focused. Our time that we spend out here (in practice) has to be very exact in what we work on. And then we’ve got to rest. We have players with tired legs and tired mentals so we’ve got to get them at a good place to be fresh on Monday. That’s a whole objective, is to be fresh.

[Win tickets: South Carolina-Auburn WBB]

Former Gamecock Talaysia Cooper is having a breakout season. Is this what you saw from her when you recruited her?
A great player. A great player. We recruit great players and we had great players in our program. I’m really happy for Coop. I’m happy that she’s found her happy place. She’s a bear to deal with because she can do it all. She can defend. She can score three levels. She can play multiple positions. I think the style of play fits perfectly for her. 

How do you assess the way you have been able to disrupt a streak of very good teams?
I’m proud. I’m proud that our team is finding a way to dig deeper in situations. It may not be pretty, it may not be perfect, but the bravado and the moxie that we played with – especially played with against LSU – throughout four quarters was tested. We were able to find a way to gut out a win. I think our defensive effort was great. I think our guards and their ability to help us rebound the basketball, didn’t see that all season long, but that’s one of the keys as we continue down this season is to have them gang rebound. Help us. Help the post players down there. 

Offensively (it) wasn’t our best game, but we made adjustments to meet our players where they were. We had a playbook for the LSU game. If it’s ten plays, we only ran two of them. That was just four out, five out, just play basketball because their focus was more on getting stops. I told them I’ve never seen them not have that for a long stretch of a game. But they really concentrate on other areas, which they found a way to win. 

Maddy McDaniel didn’t play against LSU. Was it just game management or does she have any lingering issues from the concussion?
I think Maddy is right now getting her footing back from where she was. I don’t think she was practicing as well as she needed to, and we needed to, in order for us to make that call. I think she’s fighting through it. Good two days of practice. I think she’ll play. I do think she’ll play. Her speed, her ability to be a little bit different than all of our guards, will pay dividends. We’re going to need that against Tennessee.

Confidence level in the Eagles today? (Staley is dressed head to toe in Eagles gear.)
We leave at 4:30. So a three-touchdown lead will make me feel good about getting on the plane. That’s what my heart says. Eagles fans, we go by our heart. We go only by heart. We’re emotional about it and we try to protect our hearts. So, a three-touchdown lead will help our hearts. 

Are you bringing Kim Caldwell an Eagles onesie?
No. I don’t know where she falls. Where is she from? (West Virginia.) So she’s probably Commanders. Uh-uh. No. She’s too close to DC. No. (Editor’s note: Caldwell was born in Parkersburg, WV, and played and coached at Glenville State in Glenville, WV. Washington is about 100 miles closer than Philadelphia, but Pittsburgh is the closest NFL team. 

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