South Carolina Women’s Basketball Soars in Spot, Atop the Rankings
Less than Staley, South Carolina has gained a single countrywide title, in 2017, and she entered this time, her 14th as the head coach, with a 7-yr, $22.4 million deal extension and anticipations at new heights.
Two of her A-record recruits, the juniors Aliyah Boston and Zia Cooke, are at the helm of what is now a seasoned crew, with five returning starters from the excursion to a national semifinal, where by South Carolina narrowly misplaced to Stanford.
Boston is the team’s centerpiece, ready to score from quite a few additional areas of the floor than her 6-foot-5 body may well counsel. Previous period she averaged a double-double (13.7 points and 11.5 rebounds), and this yr, right after spending the off-time functioning on her conditioning, she has proved able of jogging the ground with even her smallest, speediest peers. She is crafty near the basket, but additional astonishing is her ability to occasionally score from behind the 3-position line.
Cooke entered the university recreation on a wave of spotlight reels from the forms of stores that usually focus on N.B.A. dunks. Her flash is well balanced by Destanni Henderson, a 5-foot-7 senior guard who is the team’s major facilitator and a scoring threat.
The team’s in general encounter, while, would make it specifically dangerous. A deep bench characteristics promising freshmen, in addition players who have now logged a lot of minutes like the junior Laeticia Amihere and the senior Destiny Littleton.
That experience translates into suffocating defensive stress.
“You did not actually see the effect in the 1st 50 %,” Staley said soon after Monday’s win. “The 3rd and fourth quarters are when you commence emotion what our protection does to teams.” Connecticut, for example, was 1 of 11 from the area in the fourth quarter, unable to get close to the Gamecocks, who experienced 4 steals in that interval.
Staley, who has extensive been regarded for her emphasis on protection, referred to as this workforce “the best and the deepest” of the types she has coached on that entrance.
