Stanford, Day 5: Bitter and bright
Posted by David Cloninger on March 31, 2014
STANFORD, Calif. – In South Carolina’s case, you say, “We let one get away today. But watch out for next year and the years to come.”
The Gamecocks know they should still be playing. They know they should be in the gym right now, preparing for Stanford with the Final Four on the line. North Carolina is a very tough, very talented team, but the Gamecocks had that game in their grasp and couldn’t quite get their fingers closed.
They’ll learn how to do that. Frankly, a lot of games came so easily this year that they hardly ever had to win a tight one. And as a lot of young teams do, they found life difficult away from home – USC only lost five games, but three were on neutral courts and two were on the road.
Sunday was a day of regret. That stretched into Monday.
After Monday, though, it’s time to go back to that 24-hour rule that Dawn Staley has hung on the players the day they stepped into the locker room. You never get too high with the highs or too low with the lows.
Now’s the time to take control of next year. To realize that the Gamecocks are on the brink of something very special. To discover a way to carry Sunday’s loss – whether it be mentioning it before every game, hanging the final score on the practice gym wall, tattooing it on a hand – into every practice, every individual workout, every pickup session going into next year.
And then take it into every game.
“It all starts now,” Aleighsa Welch said in the locker room, finding time to crack a smile despite leaving the court in tears. “I’m a senior, so I have to start leading now.”
It hurt to leave that locker room and that gym without a win, as it should. But the Gamecocks, from Staley to Welch to the least-used player, all agreed – they surprised so many this year. They weren’t supposed to be this good this soon. Staley thought this kind of success would happen next year, when the old guard would mix with the stunning new talent and produce a dangerous team.
Now, it’s a dangerous team that’s going to be so ridiculously deep and talented at every position next year that the Gamecocks can be considered right up there with UConn, Notre Dame, Stanford and Tennessee as an elite team in the country. Only Wilka Montout departs, meaning all five starters return, including two first-team All-SEC players and the SEC Player of the Year, and the SEC Freshman of the Year (who didn’t even start) will be back as well. Staley went out and signed two McDonald’s All-Americans and is in the hunt for a third, plus added two more guards that remind her of herself. The only problem facing next year’s team is finding enough minutes for all of them.
The youngsters will play (you don’t sign players of that caliber and sit them) but they’ll also have to fight for time behind the returnees. Staley has always gone with the upperclassmen to start, but positions can be lost and won over the course of a season.
Staley will have a much bigger roster than she normally carries and that carries a certain cloud – trying to keep everybody happy with their minutes – but it also carries a certain threat. One player or rotation isn’t having a good game, switch in the next – we’ll see if there are any Wally Pipp scenarios later on.
The future is shining like molten gold. This was not a good year, not a flash-in-the-pan, it was the season that turned the Gamecocks from a good, strong team to a formidable opponent. Bitter end, but 29 wins is nothing to regret.
Been a fun year for me. They’ve all been fun, watching this program get better and better from that initial 10-win season. Staley has increased her SEC win total in every year, and could say the same for her overall win total if she hadn’t matched the 25 from two years ago last year. Only problem there is it’s going to be awfully tough to top this year’s 29 and 14 – but watch them make a run at it.
All thanks to my superiors at The State for financing this trip, and thanks to those of you who read the season’s stories. I know that a lot of Gamecock seasons have ended with the regretful mourn of “Wait till next year” but this time around, you can’t help but feel eager to say it one more time.
Wait till next year.
