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Girardeau: How to build nation’s No. 1 team
How to build the nation’s best team? Follow Dawn Staley’s blueprint By Ed Girardeau | Contributing writer O n Jan. 13, the South Carolina women’s basketball team was ranked No. 1 the nation for the first time since its national championship in 2017.
A year ago, in what was considered a down year after losing the best player in women’s basketball in A’ja Wilson, the Gamecocks went 23-10, finished second in the SEC for the first time in four years and lost in the Sweet 16.
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Hard times, indeed.
Dawn Staley’s formula for turning it around was pretty simple. Bring in the best recruiting class in the country. The result is a team with players who are just better than other teams. Staley does a great job coaching, but I’m sure she’d be the first to tell you it’s a whole lot easier with really great players. She’s got them.
Are they better than UConn? Well, we don’t have to wonder. The Huskies come to Columbia Feb. 10. UConn was knocked from the top spot by Baylor. Baylor’s only loss? A 74-59 knockout by South Carolina.
Meanwhile, the other South Carolina programs can learn a lot from Staley. The team that has the best players wins. At least most of time.
Recruiting has been good in football. The players are getting better. It’s a tough get. South Carolina finished 15th in the nation in most rankings for this year’s class. That’s good but only seventh in the SEC. It’s a tough row to hoe.
LSU winning the national championship should give everyone hope. Here’s a team that fell apart and in stepped Ed Orgeron, who had won only 10 games in three seasons at Ole Miss and was shown the door. He kicked around as an assistant and was the interim head coach at Southern Cal, but was passed over for the permanent job.
He came to LSU as an assistant and once again found himself as an interim head coach. When he was named head coach you could hear the scowls all the way in South Carolina. He’d never win. Look how awful he was at another SEC school. Sound familiar?
Who’s laughing now? 15-0, the Heisman Trophy winner and a national championship over the school from the Upstate, thank you very much. All from a program in disarray just four years ago.
Why not South Carolina? It’s possible. I’m not one to give the other school from the Upstate any credit, but I will put it this way. They are where we want to be. They have recruited some very good football players and stayed the course while losing five straight times to Carolina. None of us really believe their head coach is some football guru, but he can recruit.
Put the right coaches together with the right players, who knows how far it can go. I’m not saying it will happen next year for the Gamecocks, but I wouldn’t bet against a much-improved performance.
Staley has shown everyone the way by building the best basketball program in the country. She has the blueprint. Here’s hoping the other programs can plug into it.
With loyal devotion, remembering the days …
Ed Girardeau is a 1982 South Carolina graduate and has been a columnist for Spurs & Feathers since 2012. You can reach him at edgirardeau@spursandfeathers.com.
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