South Carolina women's basketball: Five Things to Watch - #5 UCLA

South Carolina heads west to face UCLA in a top-five matchup on Sunday. Here’s what to watch for and how to watch the game. 

1. Injury report

The Gamecocks should, for just the second time this season, have all 13 players available. 

“Everyone’s healthy, yes,” Dawn Staley said on Friday.

South Carolina has had multiple players miss games, whether due to injuries (Tessa Johnson and Maddy McDaniel) or suspension (Ashlyn Watkins and Chloe Kitts). Having a full compliment of players available is a big asset for the Gamecocks.

UCLA has also dealt with injuries to begin the season. Starting point guard Kiki Rice missed the first three games with a shoulder injury. Rice returned for the last game against Arkansas. 

Forward Angela Dugalić also missed the first two games of the season. Transfer guard Charlisse Leger-Walker has yet to play this season as she continues to rehab from a torn ACL suffered on January 28.

2. Slow starts

No matter what else has happened through the first three weeks of the season, South Carolina’s slow starts have been the constant. 

The exact cause has varied. Sometimes it has been poor defense, sometimes it has been poorly executed offense, and sometimes, like the Clemson game, they just couldn’t hit a shot.

Since the Michigan game, South Carolina has begun to round into form defensively. There are still too many mistakes, but Staley said last week that she isn’t worried about the defense. 

It’s the offense that has been the biggest contributor to the slow starts. For five seasons South Carolina had either Aliyah Boston or Kamilla Cardoso (or both) as the centerpiece of the offense. Without that post presence, South Carolina is struggling with shot selection.

Too many shots are early in the possession, or before teammates are in possession, or taken at the expense of a better look.

“For us, a good shot is in rhythm. That’s one,” Staley said. “Two: rebounding position. (If) we got people down there rebounding, give us a shot to get an offensive rebound. And then, whoever has a hot hand, let’s keep feeding them. But if you’re open two times down, they’re not guarding you. You’re gonna be open for the entire possession. So let it run a little bit and it comes back, lock load, and shoot that thing.”

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3. Hollywood Stars

Maybe because of the slow starts, maybe because they started last season with back-to-back totally unexpected blowouts, or maybe just because seeing every game up close makes all the warts stand out, it seems like the Gamecocks have struggled this season.

Certainly, when South Carolina was 6-30 from the field and trailing Clemson 17-12, the Gamecocks didn’t look capable of beating the Bruins.

Then you remember they are 5-0 with a top-ten win to their credit and they ended up beating the Tigers by 32. Maybe we are judging too harshly.

Betting lines aren’t available yet, but ESPN gives South Carolina a roughly 75% chance of winning on Sunday.

“There’s a there’s a lot of focus,” Staley said on Friday. “So they’re ready. You think they’re ready. (There’s) one more prep day, but they’re ready.”

If I’ve learned one thing from covering this team for the last 13 months, it’s to never count them out. The bigger the stage, the better they seem to play, especially MiLaysia Fulwiley, Tessa Johnson, Te-Hina Paopao… well most of the roster.

“This is an easy one to focus on,” Staley said. “It’s easy.” 

South Carolina has not played its best basketball yet this season and every game has had a lull or two. Nobody would dispute that. But don’t be surprised if they put it all together on Sunday.

4. Streaking

With the win over Clemson, South Carolina set a new program record with 43 consecutive wins. The streak dates back to the Final Four loss to Iowa in Dallas in 2023. That loss snapped  a 42-game winning streak. 

The 43-game winning streak is the seventh longest in NCAA history and second longest by an SEC team (Tennessee, 46). South Carolina and Connecticut are the only programs with multiple 40-game win streaks (Connecticut has four).

South Carolina has won 84 of its last 85 games, 98 of its last 100 games, and is 113-3 over the last four seasons. Going into Sunday, South Carolina hasn’t lost a game in 603 days and hasn’t lost a regular season game in 1,059 days.

South Carolina has a 33-game road winning streak, which is the third-longest in NCAA history. A win over UCLA would tie South Carolina with 200-04 UConn for the second-longest streak. (The longest is 62 by 2014-19 UConn, 62)

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5. Scouting the Bruins

UCLA is one of the most talented teams in the country. Coach Cori Close has managed to load up on traditional high school recruits and in the transfer portal. The Bruins have brought together the top three players from the 2022 signing class in Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, and Janiah Barker.

The Bruins are one of the few teams that can match the Gamecocks’ depth. That’s not the only way the Bruins resemble the Gamecocks.

UCLA’s centerpiece is Betts, a dominant 6-7 post. She is surrounded by talented, big, athletic players at every position. The Bruins rebound and defend at a high level. It all sounds familiar to the Gamecocks of the past few seasons.

“Cori is close to where her teams are,” Staley said. “Very physical. Great rebounding team. They got a big that – like Lauren is a separator for what they bring to the table, good guard play. They just play well as a collective. They’re big. They just do all the little things, all the intangible things that they take care of. So for us, we gotta be who we are. We gotta fly around out there a little bit. Our guards got to come to play. Our bigs got to come to play on both sides of the basketball. We feel like we got to we got a good game plan together, and hopefully, we can execute it.”

The similarity also extends to what is probably the Bruins’ lone weakness: three-point shooting. Like the Gamecocks during the Freshies Era, UCLA doesn’t shoot the ball particularly well from three. 

Leger-Walker was brought in to help space the floor, but she’s still hurt. Timea Gardiner, who faced South Carolina last season while at Oregon State, is currently shooting a blistering 15-26 from behind the arc. However, she is a career 38.8% shooter, so she is due for some misses to get back to her average.

The Ws
Who: #1 South Carolina (5-0) at #5 UCLA (4-0)
When: 4:00 pm EST, Sunday, November 24
Where: Pauley Pavilion, Los Angeles, CA
Watch: FS1

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