Everything Dawn Staley said ahead of the South Carolina-Coppin State women's basketball game

Following Wednesday’s practice, South Carolina’s women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley spoke with the media. Here’s everything she had to say ahead of the home opener.

How is Tessa Johnson looking after some ankle issues?

“She practiced, she practiced.”

Scheduling this game through social media, and does USC have a return game next year with Coppin State

“We do. We do. We’re fortunate that they moved some things around for us to play, and then we’ll return to them. I mean, they’re a formidable opponent. They play hard for 40 minutes. They run some great stuff. They’re going to come in here ready to rock and roll no matter how many people we have in front of us. We got to play our style of play. We go to prepare like we would normally prepare for a game and not take anyone lightly.”

Recruiting Ayla McDowell

“She’s a great addition. She’s a big, long guard that can score, that can defend. Quality individual. She will one day be a captain. She is that put together. She wants to be a pro. She wants to take the world by storm. She feels like we’re the best program to put her in that position, and we’re incredibly happy to have her.”

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Sakima Walker’s performance against NC State and improvements in the offseason

“Sakima’s big. She’s 6-foot-6. She has been really improving. I know she didn’t play much. She didn’t play in the Michigan game, and it was only because of matchups. They just play five guards. But we did play Adhel (Tac). With the type of bigs that we have, you are going to have to pick and choose according to how they prepare and who will get the nod. I think she’s been doing some tremendous things. We actually were going to start her in the NC State game, and I just didn’t like the combination in the preparation. So we decided to go with Joyce (Edwards) and (Sania) Feagin, which didn’t turn out bad. But I knew she was ready to play, so she was going to get some minutes, and she did fairly well.”

Excitement around the home opener

“It’s unfortunate that we had to play two games at neutral sites to open the season. I guess it’s a buildup to playing at home. I hope that people come out and support us and do it in a fashion of raising another banner. That’s always exciting. To play in front of our fans, but we’ve been pretty fortunate in that every place we play, Vegas and Charlotte, it really felt like a home game. But this is really a home game where we’ll be in the comfort of CLA, and hopefully, we can play the type of basketball that everybody is accustomed to seeing.”

Is Chloe good to go tomorrow?

“Everybody’s good to go. We’ve got our entire team.”

How does it feel to have the entire team ready to go?

“It’s great. We’re at our best when we have our entire roster. We’re at our very best; we succeed the most when we have our entire roster. We look forward to just figuring out what substitution patterns will look like and keeping everybody healthy.”

What’s been working, and what needs work?

“I like it when they’re focused in the play. They do a really good job. I don’t like it when they’re not focused in, because they don’t do a good job; we rely on just being talented. But a very unselfish group, very connected group. They like each other, they really like spending time with each other off the floor. They’re really happy for each other on the floor. I like their development and their progression, the fact that they communicate. You take somebody like MiLaysia, who doesn’t really say a whole lot, but you can hear her now. She feels like one of them. Everybody feels like one of the girls. I sit back and I watch that and I love the dynamics of them just opening themselves up to each other and growing. That’s a coach’s dream.”

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