South Carolina women's basketball: Three things we learned from the back-to-back top ten wins

South Carolina had an impressive weekend, knocking off #8 Duke and #9 TCU just days apart. What did we learn from the top-ten wins?

1. South Carolina’s defense is championship-level elite
This isn’t a huge surprise. Even as the Gamecocks seemed to sleepwalk through the first three weeks of the season, Dawn Staley repeatedly said she wasn’t worried about the defense. Plus, South Carolina has annually had one of the best defenses in the country over the past decade or so.

All that being said, Wow!

In the four games since losing to UCLA, South Carolina has allowed an average of 52.3 points. The opponents aren’t cupcakes either, coming in at fourth (TCU), 12th (Duke), 66th (Iowa State), and 158th (Purdue) in the NET. Furthermore, TCU and Duke came into their games with top 30 offenses and Iowa State has one of the best point guards and post scorers in the country. 

South Carolina is holding teams to 35.9% shooting, forcing 19.3 turnovers, and allowing only 11.8 assists.

Again, these aren’t bad offensive teams. Iowa State’s Emily Ryan averaged 9.0 assists by herself going into that game, and TCU was second in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio.

This season’s defense looks different from past Gamecock defenses, which analyst Carolyn Peck dubbed “bully ball.” 

South Carolina doesn’t have the elite shot-blocker protecting the rim like Aliyah Boston and Kamilla Cardoso, and South Carolina is only blocking 5.8 shots per game. But if they used to be big and strong, now the Gamecocks are long and athletic. 

“They’re a really athletic defensive team and they caused some problems for us,” TCU’s Hailey Van Lith said. “They made all my catches tough. They got in me. They were trying to displace me all game. They were trying to speed me up.” 

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2. MiLaysia Fulwiley isn’t going anywhere
Fulwiley hasn’t shot well this season and she has gotten visibly frustrated at times. The frustration, along with getting benched at UCLA, had a lot of folks already writing her off and putting her in the transfer portal. That was a big mistake. 

Fulwiley is a lot like former Gamecock Zia Cooke in that they both really need to see the ball go through the net early. Make one or two baskets and suddenly everything opens up. 

Fulwiley is also capable of being an elite defender when she is focused. Unfortunately when she isn’t scoring she tends to lose focus on that end of the court. But when Fulwiley is engaged she can cause havoc and create lots of easy baskets for herself and teammates.

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3. Patience is a virtue
With South Carolina now playing like a championship favorite, the lesson from the first six weeks is patience. When South Carolina got embarrassed by UCLA, a lot of people were eager to dance on the Gamecocks’ grave.

It was the same when Sania Feagin struggled to start the season, or when Raven Johnson couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, and again with Fulwiley. There were people who couldn’t get rid of them fast enough.

Not Dawn Staley. She stuck by her players and didn’t make any knee-jerk moves. Now her patience is being rewarded.

Two things stand out as representative of Staley’s mentality. First was the postgame at UCLA. Staley wasn’t mad, or upset, or critical. “We ran into a buzz saw,” she said. She knew her team well enough to know how they would respond to the loss.

The other was when she laughed at me when I said I assumed she wouldn’t change the starting lineup, saying, “No. Not at all.” Again, she wasn’t mad or annoyed. Staley stayed the course and now the Gamecocks are back to dominating.

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