Gamecocks hope for better outcome against Tar Heels

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March 26, 2014 BY DAVID CLONINGER - The State
 
SEATTLE — The horn had barely stopped blaring when the thought sunk in.
 
North Carolina. Next round.
 
Rematch.
 
“I think it gives us a lot of motivation because there is a lot more at stake this time around,” forward Aleighsa Welch said shortly after she pumped in 21 points to help South Carolina whip Oregon State. “The first game, we dug ourselves a hole. We can’t afford to do that this time around.”
 
The Gamecocks lost their first game of the season on Dec. 18 in Myrtle Beach against the Tar Heels, a game in which USC was trailing late but cut it to two points before succumbing. Welch had a career-high 23 points, but it wasn’t enough.
 
It was a strange affair. USC was close to winning despite Alaina Coates scoring no points in nine minutes, and Khadijah Sessions spraining her ankle halfway through the game. Columbia native Xylina McDaniel, one of the Tar Heels’ posts, sank a 3-pointer to stretch the lead to five and UNC pulled away.
 
McDaniel and star Diamond DeShields were each out of the game early with foul trouble, but USC couldn’t get that far ahead. The Gamecocks’ guards were contained, and 10 missed free throws settled the difference.
 
That was then. This is now. USC responded from a sluggish first game of the NCAA tournament to hunt Oregon State’s offense to extinction in the second round. The Tar Heels also regrouped, rallying to win a first-round game against Tennessee-Martin before thumping Michigan State in the last round.
 
It seems fitting that the Gamecocks would have to get past the Tar Heels to keep the season alive. It was the Tar Heels, two seasons ago, who served notice that Dawn Staley’s program was up and coming – the Gamecocks blistered UNC 79-48 in Myrtle Beach and continued soaring to the Sweet 16.
 
This year, the Tar Heels pulled their feet from the fire after a three-game losing streak midway through the ACC season threatened to drop their seed for the NCAA tournament. UNC responded with four consecutive wins, two more losses and then a second win against rival Duke to complete a regular-season sweep.
 
The Heels lost in the ACC tournament semifinals to Duke but rebounded by overcoming a 15-point second-half deficit to UT-Martin and popping Michigan State. Playing loose and well, the Heels are a dangerous opponent.
 
They know USC, and USC knows them. Staley knows it won’t be easy, but getting to the Final Four shouldn’t be easy.
 
“They’re all playing great basketball at this point, but I’m looking forward to the challenge of it,” she said.
 
GAMECOCKS VS. UNC
 
When: Sunday, March 30, 7 p.m.
 
Where: Stanford, Calif.
 
TV: ESPN2

 

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Previewing a very Sweet 16
 
http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/tournament/2014/story/_/id/10675540/women-ncaa-tournament-2014-previewing-very-sweet-16

The rematch between South Carolina and North Carolina may well be the most enticing game of the entire Sweet 16. Which team is the favorite on what is truly a neutral court a couple of thousand miles from home? Is it the SEC regular-season champion with someone who should fare well in the national coach-of-the-year race in Dawn Staley and the inside power of Alaina Coates and Elem Ibiam complementing the all-court games of Tiffany Mitchell and Aleighsa Welch? Or should it be the team that already beat South Carolina on a neutral court earlier this season and has freshman Diamond DeShields, who seems to become a bigger star with each shot she takes?
 
Coates, who averaged 11 points and 13.5 rebounds in the first two rounds of the tournament, barely played in the earlier game against the Tar Heels, but if she's more of a factor now, aren't North Carolina's freshmen, too?

 

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Stanford, Day 1
March 27, 2014 by David Cloninger
 
FREMONT, Ca. – Which if you didn’t know, is in that San Jose-Stanford-Palo Alto-San Francisco quadrangle. I arrived this evening while South Carolina arrived this morning – the Gamecocks did some sight-seeing in San Fran while my knees were rammed into my ears in an airplane seat.
 
Going to head out tomorrow to get familiar with the locations, like the arena at Stanford and the best ways to avoid rush-hour traffic. Might even sneak in a few interviews as well, although the team’s over in Santa Clara and if I go there I’m just going to park at the new 49ers stadium and re-enact all of my favorite Candlestick Park moments on the new turf.
 
Anyway, another week, another town, another game on the horizon. Gamecocks have a while to think about it. They’ll have done the least traveling of any team in this regional, but I’m sure that advantage gets outweighed by Stanford playing on its home court. Who knows – perhaps the Cardinal faithful will see similarities between their color and USC’s garnet and stick around to cheer for them against the Tar Heels on Sunday.
 
I got acclimated with nasty traffic on the 880, supper at the Big Bear Diner (any place serving breakfast 24-7 will always win this boy’s heart), unpacking into another cookie-cutter hotel room and buying more toothpaste. Those stalwart TSA members at SEATAC confiscated my other tube, apparently because it rang up as a weapon of mass destruction on their suitcase radar. One of these days I’m going to inject super glue into a tube and have it purposely be confiscated in the vain hope that an agent will take it and have to get their jaws pried open the next day.
 
Spent a lot of time today going back over the USC-UNC game on Dec. 18. So much has changed since. The Tar Heels weathered a bad stretch and are playing their best ball, while the Gamecocks have improved so much since then. That game was their first (and only) test of the non-conference season, and they weren’t sharp. Khadijah Sessions, playing in her hometown, was trying to do everything and then got hurt (I’ll talk about that much more this week). Alaina Coates didn’t score. Bigs Elem Ibiam and Aleighsa Welch kept the Gamecocks in the game but USC’s guards found it hard to operate. I’ll be anxious to see what kind of defense Dawn Staley cooks up for Diamond DeShields – I said it in Myrtle, and I’ll say it again, she is Downey-esque in how she scores the ball. Delino’s little girl is some kind of athlete.

 

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Now, about that home-court advantage....
 
http://espn.go.com/ncw/notebook/_/page/notebook_quickdish140326/coaches-remain-displeased-schools-hosting-regionals

Dawn Staley pulled no punches about how she feels about the regional rounds of the NCAA tournament being played on campus sites.
 
Staley's top-seeded South Carolina earned its Sweet 16 ticket Tuesday night, defeating Oregon State in Seattle. The Gamecocks face No. 4 seed North Carolina on Sunday. If they win, they could face second-seeded Stanford on the Cardinals' home floor with a berth to the Final Four on the line.
 
"Yeah, I think it sucks," Staley said after Tuesday's game. "The people at Stanford appreciate good basketball, but when the Final Four is at stake, I think it should be played at a neutral site. I think it should be at a location that equals the playing field for all competitors."

 

If NCAA success is your measure, then the SEC has proved itself to be the best conference in the country this season, with five SEC teams moving on to the Sweet 16. South Carolina, Tennessee, LSU, Texas A&M and Kentucky are all still alive in the bracket, preparing to play in the regional semifinals.
 
"It doesn't surprise me because of what we do to each other in our league," Staley said. "What we've been able to do is draw on our experiences in our league and have some success outside of it. I'm extremely proud. I think our conference is the best in the country and for us to have five of the 16 teams still participating is proof of that."