Gamecocks ready for NCAA Tourney
Senior guard La’Keisha Sutton came up with a motto for the South Carolina women’s basketball team that USC coach Dawn Staley believes has helped the team get to where it is now: “We all we got, we all we need.”
“I think the motto does help,” Staley said. “I think it helps refocus them. It really takes the onus off personalizing it or individualizing it because it’s a ‘we’ in front of everything that’s in that line. I think they really take that to heart because one person doesn’t have to shoulder the success or the failure of our basketball team.”
With the team’s first NCAA Tournament game since Staley took over as coach, the Gamecocks have turned the focus to improving as a team before Saturday’s matchup against No. 12 Eastern Michigan. And while there’s time for the team to be excited about its first tournament bid, preparation has been noticeably more intense.
“We’ve been going hard,” senior Charenee Stephens said. “I think Coach is in a different mindset. We haven’t been here as a team and she hasn’t been there with us, so we’re just going hard. We’re playing our game, and we’re just trying to make some noise.”
Part of the focus has been blocking out the outside distractions, as classmates and professors have congratulated the team. USC President Harris Pastides came to speak to the team at practice. Point guard Bruce Ellington, who participated on the scout team, also joined the Gamecocks.
According to Sutton, the team is happy for the attention, as women’s basketball has noticeably picked up in fan following, but added, “We want to do more than just be in the tournament — we want to win games.”
Part of what has helped the Gamecocks win games to this point has been the shooting threat of Sutton and fellow senior guard Markeshia Grant, both of whom earned All-SEC honorable mention from the Associated Press.
“I think they play off one another extremely well,” Staley said. “Both of them are able to shoot the 3-ball. La’Keisha, more than Markeshia, is able to drive and find other people, so a lot of times, Markeshia is a recipient of La’Keisha’s penetration. They’ve been pretty solid, and I think that’s why we’ve been able to be as successful as we’ve been this particular season.”
The game against Eastern Michigan will be an interesting one for Sutton, who will be pitted against her cousin Miranda Tate. Tate played for the Gamecocks in her freshman season before transferring to Eastern Michigan. Sutton said the two have been reminiscing on their freshman year since they found out they’d be reunited this week.
“It’s going to be pretty exciting,” Sutton said. “I haven’t seen her since she left and we’ve been talking, so I’m excited to see her, but at the same time, I’m focused on the game.”
Stephens said the assistant coaches watched the tape on Eastern Michigan as soon as they found out USC would be pitted against them. Since then, Sutton said the emphasis has been on their ability in transition and stopping their leading scorer, Tavelyn James.
With the senior class waiting four years to go to the NCAA Tournament, the sense of urgency isn’t anything new, as the team has felt that urgency from the start of the season.
“The entire time we’ve been here, we’ve been putting work in just for this moment,” Stephens said. “Coming in here senior year, I think me and La’Keisha and other seniors, we really thought that it could happen. That’s what you have to do — you have to believe and know that if you put that work in and you put that time in, then anything can happen.”