South Carolina women's basketball: Five Things to Watch - Texas A&M

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1. Point guard

Look for South Carolina to continue with its point-guard-by-committee approach. Asked if she would shorten the point guard rotation in conference play, Dawn Staley said no. She likes the different looks she can throw at opponents to keep them off balance. 

Kierra Fletcher has been a full participant in practice, and Staley has seen improvement in Fletcher’s comfort level. Raven Johnson, Zia Cooke, and Laeticia Amihere are also getting more comfortable, so Staley sees no reason to stop utilizing everyone.

“I like the progression of where Kierra is right now,” Staley said. “I like the progression of where Raven is headed. She’s still a freshman. I like the fact that we can call on Zia and LA when we need a veteran, someone that’s been here, someone that knows some of the plays that we’ve run in the past that Raven and Kierra don’t know.”

Texas A&M’s Joni Taylor was asked this week if South Carolina is better this season than last season, and she pointed to the point guard position as the wild card.

“I think they could be. Are they better right now than they were last year? No,” Taylor said. “You lose Destanni Henderson who’s been a point guard for them for a really long time. I think they are trying to figure that piece of it out, but they are getting better every single time they play.”

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2. Remember last year?

This season, after the Christmas layoff, South Carolina opens SEC play against an opponent with a depleted roster. Last season, after the Christmas layoff, South Carolina opened SEC play against a depleted opponent. 

We all remember what happened last year: South Carolina lost 70-69 to a Missouri team that had just seven available players. Staley said she has been “spewing” reminders about last season, and most of the players were around for that loss. 

With that in mind, Staley feels good going into Thursday night’s game. 

“We’ve gotten in a couple of great practices. Probably much better than most coming off a break. I think they are pretty excited to start,” she said. “The core group of our team has been through this routine of starting conference play. We don’t want the result to be what it was last year.”

3. Threes

South Carolina ranks 11th in the SEC in three-point shooting at 29.6%. The Gamecocks are one of just four teams shooting below 30%, followed by Texas A&M, Ole Miss, and Kentucky. 

The silver lining, if there is one, is that South Carolina has been fairly selective with its shots. The gamecocks have only attempted 186 shots from behind the arc, 12th in the SEC. That puts them in a better position than, say, Ole Miss and Kentucky, who continue to shoot – and miss – at a high volume. 

“I don’t think we take bad shots,” Staley said. “I like the progression of taking better shots. They’re not falling at the rate we want them to, but they are good shots and they’ll eventually fall.”

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4.  Block party

Credit the South Carolina social media team for bringing attention to this one. 

The Gamecocks have blocked 123 shots this season, an average of 10.2 per game. Not only does that lead the country, but it is a record-setting pace.

The NCAA record for blocks per game for a season is 8.6, set in by South Carolina in 2019-20 (284 total). The record for total blocks is 324, set by UConn in 2013-14. UConn played 40 games that season, while South Carolina missed out on four games in 2020 when the NCAA tournament was canceled. 

Assuming three SEC tournament games and four NCAA tournament games, South Carolina has 24 games remaining. If this shot-blocking pace holds, that comes to a new record of 367 blocks in a season.

I predicted South Carolina would break the record last season, but the Gamecocks “only” averaged 7.4 blocks per game. The difference may be the number of blocks South Carolina is getting on the perimeter this season. Laeticia Amihere, Ashlyn Watkins, and Brea Beal each blocked a significant number of shots outside the paint. 

5. Scouting the Aggies

Scouting the Aggies basically means looking at the injury report. The Aggies could dress as few as seven players Thursday night, with another player a game-time decision. 

The most notable injury has been the wrist injury suffered by start freshman Janiah Barker. Barker was averaging 14.0 points and 7.5 rebounds before the injury, which caused her to miss the month of December. She was expected to be reevaluated this week to determine if Barker would need season-ending surgery. Joni Taylor was vague about Barker’s status when asked this week, but made it sound like surgery is off the table.

“She’s getting some mobility back and some strength back,” Taylor said. “She’s getting CT scans and those are moving in the right direction. We’re happy and pleased with that.

Taylor seems resigned to the fact that Texas A&M is going to lose a lot of games this season. She wants players to focus on getting better each game and not worry about wins and losses. She even pulled out one of Staley’s mantras to make her point, saying “Keep the main thing the main thing and drown out the noise.” 

Playing South Carolina is a teaching tool for the young Aggies.

“If you want to know where you are, you go and play the best,” Taylor said. “You don’t know what you don’t know.”

The Ws

Who: #1 South Carolina (12-0, 0-0) vs Texas A&M (5-5, 0-0)

When: 7:00 pm, Thursday, December 29

Where: Colonial Life Arena

Watch: SEC Network

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