Dawn Staley on how her South Carolina squad can bounce back from being shaken up by "unfamiliar" loss

South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley isn’t used to losing. In fact, the Gamecocks have only lost 11 total times in the past six seasons. On Wednesday, while previewing her team’s next game against the Florida Gators (a 7:00 p.m. Thursday night affair at Colonial Life Arena that will air on SEC Network), the Gamecock head coach admitted that her team probably is a little shaken by Sunday’s loss to the Texas Longhorns in Austin. She does, however, have confidence in their ability to bounce back.

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I mean, it shakes you a little bit because it’s so unfamiliar,” she said. “You think about where you need to improve. Most times when we’ve lost, it’s more like an anomaly. Like, it’s, ‘What the heck? That wasn’t us. That wasn’t our defense; that wasn’t our offense.’”

The solution, she says, is simple even if it isn’t easy: “So, we’ve got to figure out what (was) self-inflicted, what the opponent forced us to do, what’s the anomaly of it–and then, try to fix it all at once.”

Vic Schaefer’s Longhorns had success inside against the Gamecocks. That also is unfamiliar territory for South Carolina. For the first time in a long time, Carolina doesn’t have a physically dominant post player. Chloe Kitts and Sania Feagin have been good as starters, but neither player is 6’4″+ like Kamilla Cardoso, Aliyah Boston, or A’ja Wilson. Ashlyn Watkins was USC’s top post defender, but she is out the rest of the year with an ACL injury. With those reasons possibly in mind, Coach Staley hinted at a possible adjustment her team could make moving forward.

“So, maybe it’s getting someone else [in the game]. Like, get ‘Kima (Sakima Walker) ready–she’s 6’6″–getting Adhel (Tac) ready because they’re big women that we really got to try to insert them and use them in places in which we can steal some moments if we’re in foul trouble. Or, just throw them out there just to see if we can give somebody a different look.”

To be clear, it didn’t appear as if Staley was playing around with the idea of changing her starting lineup. However, her team lost the rebounding battle to Texas 42-35 and was outscored in the paint 40-26. After the game, she quipped that she felt like “we weren’t getting anything from our bigs.”

In two games against Texas, 6’6″ Kyla Oldacre logged 24 points and 22 rebounds. Earlier this season, UCLA’s Lauren Betts (who stands 6’7″) had a double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds. Against teams with big, physical post players, perhaps minutes from Walker and/or Tac, or just improved overall play from the typical frontcourt rotation, could make a difference.

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Coach Staley, though, believes in her team’s ability to win. The Gamecocks have done almost nothing but win in recent years, and she says that if they play South Carolina basketball, they will be just fine. “I think, for us, we just need to get back confident and doing things the way we need to do things.”

One aspect in which confidence came up in Staley’s media availability was free throw shooting. After shooting nearly 80% on the season, the Gamecocks have shot under 70% in four of the last five games.

Staley thinks an infusion of confidence will come through her team continuing to work hard. “So, it’s more of a confidence thing. It’s more of a focus thing. It’s more of, sometimes, you second-guess yourself because you missed a few of them. You just got to work through it. It’s not anything but working through.”

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Staley and the Gamecocks will have their chance to bounce back on Thursday night when the Florida Gators come to Columbia. The “Play 4 Kay” event will tip at 7:00 p.m. in Colonial Life Arena. The game will broadcast on SEC Network, while the ESPN app makes it available for streaming.

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