The Daily Gamecock

Contrasting styles clash in Gamecocks-Cardinal Final Four matchup

Dawn Staley may be a Tara VanDerveer disciple, but you wouldn’t know it from comparing Staley’s Gamecocks to VanDerveer’s Stanford Cardinal.

South Carolina reached the FInal Four by doing most of its damage inside, scoring 32 points in the paint and adding 16 at the free throw line in the Elite Eight win over Florida State. Stanford knocked off No. 1 seed Notre Dame with a three-point barrage, knocking down 12 of 26 attempts from deep, led by a combined 10 threes from Karlie Samuelson and Brittany McPhee.

The Gamecocks may not be known for their three-point shooting, but they don’t give much to their opponents, limiting to 26.9 percent from beyond the arc this season. They’ll face a tough assignment in Samuelson, the nation’s leading three-point shooter, as she converts at a 49 percent clip.

Samuelson may be the nation’s best shooter, but she’s just the third-leading scorer for Stanford, as the Cardinal are led by McPhee and Erica McCall, who combine for over 27 points and 13 rebounds per game. The Gamecocks have faced several star players throughout the year in Diamond DeShields, Jordin Canada, Victoria Vivians and plenty more, but handling such a balanced attack will be a different challenge.

“They're sharing the ball, shooting the ball well,” Kaela Davis said Thursday. “They're getting scoring from a lot of different players, production from a lot of different players.”

As Davis pointed out, the Cardinal are sharing the ball well, having racked up 80 assists on their 105 made field goals throughout the NCAA Tournament. Staley pointed out that VanDerveer puts her players into a particular system based around a lot of passing, while South Carolina focuses more on the best fit for its personnel.

“I'm not a systems coach, you know,” Staley said Thursday. “I play off the personnel that we have. We put them in positions to be effective. A lot of times it's off the bounce.”

The Gamecocks love to play off the bounce, especially out in transition. With the new four-guard lineup, South Carolina has even more team speed on the floor, allowing them to get out on fast breaks, which Staley has emphasized all season.

Despite the athleticism with the new lineup, South Carolina hasn’t strayed from its bread and butter: getting the ball down low to A’ja Wilson.

Wilson still leads the team with 17.4 points per game, and she’ll be the focal point of Stanford’s defense, just as she has with almost every team the Gamecocks have faced this season.

“I don’t think they’re going to do anything I haven’t seen before,” Wilson said of the Cardinal defense.

Both teams have strong defenses, allowing fewer than 60 points per game, but it’s the contrasting offenses that will take centerstage Friday. Stanford has the size and depth to handle Wilson in the post, but the Gamecocks have strong perimeter defenders in Davis and Allisha Gray who should be able to limit the Cardinal’s ability to get clean looks at the basket.

With a trip to the title game on the line, Staley will look to top her mentor for the first time, and move one step closer to her lifelong dream: cutting down the nets for a national championship.


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