Women's Basketball: Everything to know about College GameDay at South Carolina
South Carolina Women’s Basketball: News • Recruiting • Schedule • Roster • Stats • SEC • Polls • Scholarships
South Carolina hosts Tennessee Sunday, but it also hosts ESPN’s College GameDay, a major event for women’s basketball.
Sunday is a groundbreaking day for the Gamecocks. It will be just the third time GameDay has gone live from a women’s game, and just the second time ABC has televised a regular-season women’s game. Tennessee and UConn have hosted GameDay before, and UConn played UCLA on ABC earlier this season, but the combined exposure is unprecedented.
ESPN planned to begin airing games on ABC last season, but the plan was delayed by the pandemic. ABC did host some tournament games last spring, but it wasn’t until December that it aired its first regular-season game. It has been another two months before ABC got around to its second.
Between Tennessee’s struggles and the injury to Jordan Horston, the matchup lost a little bit of its luster. However, an SEC championship is still on the line for South Carolina, and it will still be a showcase for one of the best game environments in women’s basketball. The game is a sellout, and there aren’t many other programs that can, let alone do, pack in 18,000 fans. It’s a chance not just to show off, but to show the blueprint to success.
“I think it’s great,” Dawn Staley said. “We’ve been a really good basketball team. We’ve done some historical things on and off the court. I think it’s only right to come here and experience all the things we’ve been doing. Our FAMs, the fact that we don’t lose very many games here. Women’s basketball is a lifestyle here in Columbia, SC. If you want to mirror some of the things that we’ve been doing, other teams can do just that. We mirror what the rest of women’s basketball could look like.”
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Schedule
Doors open at 11:30 a.m. so that fans can be in their seats by the time GameDay starts. For students, Shane Beamer is hosting a “Breakfast with Beamer.” Posters are allowed, but they must be no larger than 24×36 inches. Fans are asked to color-coordinate their clothes based on seating section.
The set is located on the corner of the court in front of the band. The set can be dismantled and slid out of the way in six minutes, leaving a whole minute to spare between the end of GameDay at 12:56 and tipoff at 1:03. Once the main set is moved, a smaller set will be used at halftime.
Staley will appear on College GameDay at the beginning of the show. That segment will be shown on the big screen in Colonial Life Arena. GameDay will be hosted by Elle Duncan with analysts Carolyn Peck (who is also the color analyst for both Gamecock basketball games this weekend), Stephanie White, Holly Rowe, and Andraya Carter. White was a late replacement for Rebecca Lobo.
Because of Senior Day and coordinating with GameDay, the National Anthem will be performed at 12:18. Senior Day will begin at 12:43. LeLe Grissett got her Senior Day honors last season, so the focus will be on Destanni Henderson, Victoria Saxton, Elysa Wesloek, and Destiny Littleton. The senior practice players and GAs will also be honored. Because of the importance of the game, Staley said the Gamecocks will not observe the tradition of starting the seniors for Senior Day.
