With first place in the SEC on the line, Monday night’s game between No. 6 Tennessee (23-3, 13-0 SEC) and No. 2 South Carolina (25-1, 13-0 SEC) will feature a battle between the old guard and the new guard of one of the nation’s top women’s basketball conferences.
In many ways, the type of program Tennessee has run over the years is the kind which South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley is trying to build. The Lady Vols have the history and the national brand associated with eliteness along with eight national championships to solidify their greatness. Now in year three of the post-Pat Summitt era, Tennessee still finds itself among women’s basketball’s best and, like the Gamecocks, have yet to lose an SEC game this season.
South Carolina, on the other hand, is still relatively new on the scene in a sport that’s been dominated by a handful of schools for quite some time. Staley is gradually changing that notion, though. Before her hiring in 2008, South Carolina hadn't enjoyed consistent success on the court since the 1980s, but the trajectory of the program has only gone upward since Staley arrived.
The Gamecocks’ first statement season came last year when the Gamecocks earned a No. 1 seed in the 2014 NCAA tournament. Thanks to its mixture of veteran know-how and youthful talent, South Carolina is once again enjoying a terrific season. The Gamecocks have dominated most opponents, with their only blemish coming on the road against No. 1 Connecticut.
South Carolina’s latest win, a 73-56 victory over Arkansas, gave the Gamecocks their 25th victory of the year — the fourth straight season they’ve reached that plateau under Staley.
With only three regular season games remaining, another goal remains in sight for the defending SEC regular season champions: an undefeated record in conference play.
It’s something that’s never been accomplished in Columbia, and it would more or less cement South Carolina as one of the four No. 1 seeds in this year’s NCAA tournament. Any hope of that goal becoming a reality starts with Tennessee, a game of which South Carolina senior forward Aleighsa Welch clearly knows the magnitude.
“This is a pivotal game for us,” Welch said. “This is very important. [This is] probably the most important game of the conference for us.”
Achieving a perfect mark in league play will be anything but easy. After facing the Lady Vols, a senior night matchup against No. 14 Mississippi State and a regular-season finale on the road at No. 11 Kentucky peek around the corner.
That said, the Tennessee game in itself presents too many concerns for Staley to look beyond Monday, and rightfully so.
The Lady Vols have eight wins over top-25 teams this season and are 8-1 against South Carolina since Staley took over.
A good showing against Tennessee would go a long way in reinforcing South Carolina as the SEC’s best and would allow the Gamecocks to get vengeance from last season’s 73-61 loss to the Lady Vols.
“I do think it's a statement game,” Staley said. “It’s a game in which if you want to play with the big girls, you’ve got to beat the big girls. Tennessee’s been the champions of our league for a very long time.”
The Lady Vols will be at a bit of a disadvantage when squaring off against the Gamecocks. Not only will Tennessee have to play in Colonial Life Arena — where South Carolina has won 30 straight games — but they’ll once again be without senior center Isabelle Harrison, who tore her ACL Feb. 15.
Before the injury, Harrison led Tennessee in points per game (12.8) and rebounds (9.1).
Still, Tennesee has a very balanced attack on offense and have played well on defense, holding opponents to only 36.6 percent shooting.
An intriguing storyline to watch for is how the Lady Vols’ defense holds up against a South Carolina bunch that is averaging 78 points per contest, due largely in part to the play of junior shooting guard Tiffany Mitchell and freshman guard/forward A’ja Wilson.
South Carolina’s last win over Tennessee was in February of 2012 when an unranked Gamecock team upset the eighth-ranked Lady Vols 64-60, a game that Welch remembers very well.
Welch, who said that she was amazed by Tennessee when she was growing up, is happy with the way the South Carolina program is developing.
“To be able to feel like we’re building a program here, of that caliber, I think it’s very important," she said, "and it definitely means a lot to us.”