South Carolina women's basketball: In defense of defense
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It started, as these things so often do nowadays, with a tweet. In the wee small hours following South Carolina’s national championship game win, a win that meant the Gamecocks went wire-to-wire as the best team in the country, @ESPN_WomenHoop tweeted that South Carolina was the first NCAA Champion since 2000 to rank outside the top 25 in points per game (59th), and had the lowest scoring average by a national champion in NCAA history.
People jumped on the tweet. It was proof that South Carolina was a fraud. Or maybe it was proof of anti-Gamecock bias. Even Dawn Staley weighed in, saying South Carolina is the people’s champ because they win in unconventional ways that others could emulate. What it really was, was a reminder that context matters. Specifically, the context provided by this follow-up tweet from @ESPNStatsInfo:
If you are focusing on South Carolina’s offense, you are focusing on the wrong end of the court. Far from being an offensively-challenged team that lucked into a title, South Carolina was a defensive juggernaut. You don’t have to score a lot when you only allow 45.5 points per game, and South Carolina still had the best scoring margin in the tournament at plus-23.3 (an improvement on the plus-20.2 regular-season average that led the nation and was a lowly third in the country in scoring defense, allowing 50.7 points per game). With all due respect to Staley, not too many teams could play defense like South Carolina, ever.
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Two different styles
The 2019-20 South Carolina team bulldozed opponents with its relentless offense. Everything that team did was designed to run and shoot. With Aliyah Boston and Mikiah Herbert Harrigan blocking shots to start the break and Tyasha Harris firing 50-foot passes for layups, South Carolina averaged 82.0 points per game. The defensive pressure began on offense, where they ran teams into the ground. Think about the signature play from that season, the fast break in the SEC championship game where all five players touched the ball with just one dribble.
Everyone knew their role, everyone ran the court, everyone was locked into the philosophy. Fast forward two years. The signature play for the 2022 Gamecocks might be this:
It’s not nearly as pretty but it’s still a team where all five players are locked into a common goal. UConn has gotten Boston switched onto Paige Bueckers and Destanni Henderson on Aliyah Edwards. It should be an advantage for the Huskies. But the relentless pressure forces a poor pass that leads to a loose ball. Three players dive for it (Henderson probably knocked it away from Brea Beal), and Beal lays out a second time. Nobody runs, everyone is focused on the defense first. Even Zia Cooke, lurking just off-camera, never left her player to leak out. South Carolina runs, but settles back and runs a play, ending with a Cooke layup. It didn’t make the highlight reels. That’s why I had to make my own video.
How the Gamecocks got here
The transition from an offense-first scheme to a defense-first scheme was both gradual and sudden. South Carolina struggled to find its identity for much of last season, but when it put things together for the Final Four run the focus was defense and Boston. The light bulb had come on for Boston and she understood why the coaches were telling her to “always be dominant.”
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Boston spent the offseason focused on being more dominant, but when this season began, she fell back on some old habits. It was the now-famous conversation in the Bahamas after the Buffalo game that changed things. Boston had 23 points and seven rebounds, but Staley told her it wasn’t good enough. South Carolina was her team and her teammates were sacrificing for it to be Boston’s team. She had to dominate every part of the game or she was letting them down. The next day South Carolina blew out Oregon, and two days later dominated UConn. The 2022 Gamecocks were unveiled for all to see on that Monday afternoon.
Boston was unstoppable with 22 points and 15 rebounds. The defense was stifling, holding UConn to 1-10 shooting and three points in the fourth quarter as the Huskies wilted under the relentless defensive pressure. After the game, Staley declared that Boston was the best player in the country and South Carolina had its best defense ever. Time would prove her correct on both.
It took total buy-in from every player. They weren’t going to score 80 or 90 points a game. There were fewer shots for Henderson and Cooke. In fact, there were fewer shots for everyone other than Boston. Saniya Rivers led the nation in scoring as a high school senior, but now she was asked to be a defensive specialist at point guard. Matchups dictated playing time – you might play 25 minutes one game and five minutes the next. South Carolina would switch almost everything, which meant that all five players on the court had to be on the same page or everything would fall apart.
It also meant going against the grain. Put Laeticia Amihere or Rivers at point guard. Assign Beal to Hailey Van Lith. Put Henderson on Bueckers. Play a lineup that is all over 6-2, or play a lineup that has four guards. I saw one analysis that claimed Beal gave up less than 10 points in the entire tournament. The number could be debated a little, but to even be in that range is incredible. Defense was the only non-negotiable for South Carolina this season.
The future
This story was originally about the transfer portal. An accomplished player entered the portal and was linked to South Carolina. “But she doesn’t play defense,” I thought, “South Carolina won’t take her.” Sure enough, the player South Carolina eventually added, Kierra Fletcher, has a lower profile but comes from an outstanding defensive background.
No defense, no championship.
That’s not to say South Carolina will never be a high-scoring team again. This season’s roster dictated that the best chance for winning was on the defensive end. In a couple of years, it may be on the offensive end again. But nowhere on that trophy does it list points per game.
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