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from Spurs & Feathers March 2020 - UofSC Gamecock Sports

SC Athletics

CHAMPIONSHIP CELEBRATION

No. 1 Gamecocks make history as they roll through SEC Tournament

By Josh Hyber | Staff writer • Photos by Artie Walker Jr.

The glowing endorsements from opposing coaches throughout the season rolled in as often as Mikiah Herbert Harrigan swished baseline jumpers.

As often as Ty Harris assists, Aliyah Boston blocks and LeLe Grissett hustle plays.

In other words, frequently, and in bunches.

In January, Mississippi State’s Vic Schaefer, who has coached in two national championship games, compared No. 1 South Carolina to Pat Summit’s teams at Tennessee. He said after his team fell to the Gamecocks in the SEC Tournament title game, “If they do have a hole, it ain’t very big.”

Offered Arkansas’ Mike Neighbors, “You cannot have any lapses against the number one team in America. They’re too good, too balanced, too well-coached. They’re too everything.”

Summed up Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma after South Carolina’s first victory over the Huskies in nine tries, “They’re not number one in the country for no reason.”

Gamecock head coach Dawn Staley, despite a slight hesitance to offer any bold proclamations, had a different tone compared to previous seasons when talking about her team. She wasn’t afraid to talk about New Orleans, site of this season's Final Four.

“I don’t think anybody has the résumé that we have,” she said after the SEC Tournament.

In her 12 seasons at South Carolina, Staley has built the Gamecocks into a national power. Eight of her 12 teams have had a win total better or the same as the season before.

This season she and her team met enormous expectations with formidable results and entered the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed.

She started three freshmen in 33 games and won 32 of them, including 11 of 12 against ranked opponents. With just two seniors, she won all 16 conference games. With a relentless defense and a deep bench her team had a program-best 26-game win streak.

It won its fifth SEC Tournament in six seasons.

The 2020 tournament was a display of the team’s brilliance and ability to put away opponents.

In the championship game, it led Mississippi State — a team it beat by two points during the regular season — by more than 16 points from the 6:51 mark of the third quarter until 29 seconds left in the game.

It had a 14-0 run in the semifinal against Arkansas that stretched from late in the third quarter to the fourth and turned a 10-point lead into 21.

You cannot have any lapses against the number one team in

America. They’re too good, too balanced, too well-coached. They’re too everything.

– ARKANSAS HEAD COACH MIKE NEIGHBORS

It was the team’s uncanny chemistry that led the way.

In the middle of the third quarter against the Bulldogs, Boston came down with a rebound and, without taking a dribble, tossed a pass ahead to Harris. Harris took one dribble and, near the half-court line, threw a pass un

derneath the basket to a racing Herbert Harrigan.

But Herbert Harrigan was running too fast — close to the out-of-bounds line — and was forced to turn around and feed Zia Cooke. Cooke, to the right of the basket, took a sidestep and threw a pass to a wide-open Brea Beal, who banked in a layup.

Five players touched the ball. One dribble. Two points.

Then it was South Carolina’s stingy defense, which during the regular season held Ole Miss to just two first-half points and UConn to two first-quarter points.

The Gamecocks held Mississippi State leading scorer Rickea Jackson (15 points per game) to nine and second-leading scorer Jessika Carter (13) to just five. In the semifinal it held Arkansas leading scorer Chelsea Dungee (17) to 12 and second-leading scorer Alexis Tolfree (16) to six.

The team’s 31 blocks were the most by one team in conference tournament history.

Then it was the team’s bench, which six times during the regular season outscored an opponent’s entire starting lineup. It outscored its bench counterparts 13 times during SEC play and did so nine times against ranked foes. “Let’s be frank, everybody springing off the bench could be starting somewhere else,” Georgia head coach Joni Taylor said. “… You just never can get a break because they just come in and they keep coming at you, coming at you.”

Against Mississippi State, Grissett, Destanni Henderson and Victaria Saxton combined for 21 points and shot 50 percent from the field. They also combined for 12 rebounds.

Along the way, the success South Carolina had was matched only by the fun it had.

On the floor at Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Staley danced with the Carolina Band. Guard Olivia Thompson made “snow” angels in a pile of confetti. Saxton proudly carried her 5-monthold niece Aubreigh. Cooke and Laeticia Amihere took photos with fans from Chapman (S.C.) High School.

It wasn’t a national titlewinning celebration, but it was a celebration worthy of a team that answered major questions throughout the season.

Would its number one recruiting class live up to the billing? It did.

Would senior Herbert Harrigan channel her emotions into a positive force? She did.

How would Henderson and Grissett handle playing off the bench after most thought they would start? Exceptionally.

The results proved Staley and her staff of Lisa Boyer, Jolette Law and Fred Chmiel can convince the nation’s most talented high school players to buy into a system. Since she was hired in 2008, Staley has made South Carolina a place top recruits want to come.

In 2009 she brought in the nation’s number two recruit, Kelsey Bone, and along the way has made sure the most dominant regional products stay home: Goose Creek’s Aleighsa Welch (2011), Myrtle Beach’s Khadijah Sessions (2012), Charlotte’s Tiffany Mitchell (2012) and Spring Valley’s Asia Dozier (2012).

Then, the stars that brought the program from very good to great: Dutch Fork’s Alaina Coates (2013) and Heathwood Hall’s A’ja Wilson (2014).

Top prospects from all around the country have come: Bianca Cuevas-Moore from New York, Harris from Indiana and Herbert Harrigan from Florida.

Kiki Herbert Harrigan

Along the way, Staley has turned a small collection of fans into a community, a family and a diehard fanbase known as the FAMS.

In a span of seven seasons the Gamecocks have gone from 45th in the nation in attendance per game to first. From 2013 to 2016 it finished in the top three in largest attendance-per-game increase, even though the last two it already led the country in attendance per game.

This is a national championshippotential winning team.

– VANDERBILT

HEAD COACH STEPHANIE WHITE

This season, for the fifth straight time, South Carolina led the nation in average attendance with 12,185 per game and was the only program that drew more than 11,000 per game. The team has drawn at least 10,000 fans for 82 straight regular-season home games.

This season is historical on several levels, regardless of how it ends.

South Carolina had 32 wins entering the NCAA Tournament, two shy of the single-season program record. It was also on pace to have its highest-ever points per game, point margin, rebounds per game, rebound margin, blocked shots and best-ever win percentage.

The high points include the UConn win, Boston’s triple double in her career debut and Harris setting the program’s career assists record.

Yes, South Carolina won a national championship in 2017, but the common sentiment from opposing coaches during the season was that Staley, the SEC Coach of the Year, had her best team to date.

“This is a national championship-potential winning team,” said Vanderbilt head coach Stephanie White, who as a player led Purdue to the national title in 1999. “It’s a lot of fun to be on the floor and be able to witness it. … I think they just keep getting better.”

Harris and Boston were firstteam All-SEC selections, while Boston won the league’s Freshman and Defensive Player of the Year. Herbert Harrigan was a second-team All-SEC selection, while Boston was named to the SEC All-Defensive team and was joined by Cooke on the AllFreshman team.

But Staley didn’t pay too much attention to those honors.

Said the coach, with a smirk, before the SEC Tournament, “I like big hardware.”