Some New Year's resolutions for South Carolina women's basketball

South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley and her team are 13-1. The Gamecocks lost their first game since the 2022-2023 Final Four but have bounced back since with strong play and are back up to No. 2 in the AP poll.

Despite already being one game into the conference slate, USC still has over half its season remaining. With 2025 just beginning, people all across the country are making New Year’s resolutions. If the Gamecocks could make some New Year’s resolutions, what might they be?

(For a look at the hypothetical New Year’s resolutions for South Carolina football, read here.)

(For a look at the hypothetical New Year’s resolutions for South Carolina basketball on the men’s side, read here.)

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Continue the SEC streak

South Carolina women’s basketball has not lost a conference game since 2021. The Gamecocks have won the last three regular-season SEC titles and the last two SEC Tournaments.

Continuing that streak won’t be easy, though. The Texas Longhorns, LSU Tigers, Oklahoma Sooners, Tennessee Lady Volunteers, Kentucky Wildcats, Alabama Crimson Tide, and Ole Miss Rebels all are ranked inside the top 25, too.

Winning a loaded SEC likely would solidify a top seed for the Gamecocks. It also would show that this version of South Carolina has what it takes to continue the program’s dynastic run.

A smaller resolution built into this larger one is to keep the LSU streak alive. South Carolina hasn’t lost to LSU in women’s basketball in a long time. In fact, the Gamecocks have beaten the Bayou Bengals 16 times in a row. With LSU being one of USC’s biggest challengers in the SEC (and nationally) to the Gamecocks’ throne, continuing that domination matters, too.

Keep MiLaysia Fulwiley and Raven Johnson going

The “MiLaysia Fulwiley situation” has been overblown. She and Coach Staley have a strong relationship, and the hometown hero role means a lot to Fulwiley. However, no one can argue that there haven’t been some inconsistencies. The good news, though, is that the generational talent is on a bit of an upswing.

Fulwiley scored a very efficient 17 points against Missouri (on 7-for-11 shooting) while filling up the box score with four rebounds, two assists, two steals, and two blocked shots. The sophomore also had a nice game against Wofford after Christmas.

As for Johnson, the redshirt junior point guard has played better of late and might have already “figured it out.” In fact, following her tough start to the season, she’s been much better over the last month.

She has posted a 50% shooting effort in five of her past six games after having zero such performances prior to December. No. 25 also has dished out multiple assists in five of six games while not committing multiple turnovers in four of six. Her 3-point shooting has been great during that stretch, too, as she has hit eight of her last 17 from behind the arc.

If South Carolina is going to earn back-to-back titles, they need Johnson and Fulwiley to continue building on their recent strong surges.

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Remain focused, disciplined, and motivated

It can be difficult to tell a team built for the postseason that every moment of every game matters. South Carolina is much more disciplined than most other teams in the country, and Coach Staley preaches focus and always desiring to play well each and every game. But it’s natural for a team that can sleepwalk its way to 30 wins to have lapses.

There have been times this season when those lapses have been costly.

No, the Gamecocks didn’t lose to UCLA because of a lack of effort or focus. But games against Michigan, Duke, South Florida, and Charleston Southern were much closer than they should have been. Following each of those games (and, reportedly, during halftime of the CSU contest), Coach Staley expressed her displeasure with non-basketball factors like focus, effort, discipline, or competitiveness.

Cleaning that up should be a priority for this team.

One of the hallmarks of the undefeated team last year was that they came to play every game. Outside of a problem with turnovers, there were very few times that the 2023-2024 Gamecocks looked out of sorts, lacked rebounding effort, or didn’t seem interested in dominating.

A return to that level of focus would be a welcome boost for this year’s team.

Figure out post player consistency

The South Carolina women’s basketball roster is loaded. The Gamecocks have too many high-level players for everyone to play a consistently large role. However, the log jam in the front court has produced some inconsistencies.

This season, Coach Staley has started Chloe Kitts and Sania Feagin down low. The duo have had some great games and some not-so-great games.

Kitts was dominant early this season, averaging 11.2 points and 8.2 rebounds per game through her first nine outings. In four games since then, she’s had a total of 14 points and 15 rebounds. Feagin has been more up-and-down and has only been on the floor for 20 minutes in a game twice.

Bench bigs Ashlyn Watkins and Joyce Edwards sometimes play more minutes than the starters. Watkins, coming off of an early-season suspension, has shown some rust at times. Edwards, being a true freshman, has had some learning moments, too. However, the duo has been good lately and adds some extra defensive versatility when they’re in the game.

Maryam Dauda, Sakima Walker (partially because of injury), and Adhel Tac haven’t been in the rotation much of the year. However, Tac showed some signs of life against Missouri with nine points and six rebounds in just five minutes.

If the Gamecocks can get consistent production from its entire frontcourt rotation (however that rotation might look), it will go a long way in the team’s efforts to repeat.

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Get to the line and make the foul shots

Dawn Staley repeatedly has reminded the fanbase that her Gamecocks do not have a stereotypical dominant big this season. After having players like Alaina Coates, A’ja Wilson, Aliyah Boston, and Kamilla Cardoso on the roster for 10 of the last 11 seasons (sometimes having two of them on the team at the same time), South Carolina basketball has gotten used to playing with a dominant post player.

This year’s team has plenty of talent down low, but it looks different.

In addition to the obvious small dropoff in blocked shots and paint field goals, the lack of a larger-than-life inside presence has lessened the Gamecocks’ ability to get to the free throw line. USC is 140th nationally in foul shot attempts per game (17.3).

Perhaps more concerning is the fact that South Carolina’s guards aren’t getting to the line or making the easy shots when they do get there.

So far this season, the only guard on the team averaging more than two free throws is MiLaysia Fulwiley (2.1 per game), and she is making just 62% of her attempts. Tessa Johnson is the only guard on the roster shooting an above-average percentage from the line (83%), but she’s only shooting 1.5 per contest.

Without a dominant post player, South Carolina cannot afford for its guards to give away points at the charity stripe. Those percentages must improve, and it would help if that improvement also came with an increased number of chances, as well. Getting easy opportunities for points while putting opponents into foul trouble can only help this team.

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