For the South Carolina women’s basketball team, the craziness and intense national attention that surrounded its game against No. 2 Connecticut is in the rearview mirror. The Gamecocks proved that much when defeating LSU Thursday 86-62 Thursday night in their first game at Colonial Life Arena in over two weeks.
When South Carolina (23-1, 11-0 SEC) hosts Vanderbilt (13-11, 4-7 SEC) Sunday afternoon, head coach Dawn Staley’s team will take the court as the nation’s No. 1 ranked team for the last time before Monday’s new Top 25 poll comes out, which should have the Huskies on top.
That’s not to say the Gamecocks won’t have chances down the stretch to cement themselves as a potential No. 1 seed in this year’s NCAA tournament.
After facing Vanderbilt and Arkansas, South Carolina closes the regular season with three games against ranked opponents in No. 6 Tennessee, No. 13 Mississippi State and No. 10 Kentucky.
“We play in the toughest conference in America,” Staley said.
This past week, the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee announced that if the season were to end today, Connecticut, South Carolina, Notre Dame and Tennessee would be its No. 1 seeds. South Carolina earned a No. 1 seed last year in the 2014 NCAA tournament for the first time in program history.
Staley has mixed opinions on the NCAA releasing early projections on which teams are in likely to receive top-seeds.
“It’s a two-edged sword,” Staley said. “One, that you want to see the fruits of your labor in that light, being a number one seed once again. Then again, it puts a little pressure on you to stay that way.”
The Gamecocks’ matchup with Vanderbilt will be South Carolina’s fourth game in a 10 day stretch. That type of quick turnaround between games is what can usually be expected during the SEC tournament and the NCAA tournament once postseason play begins.
Staley pointed out that she has a seasoned team, but that her younger players might have a tougher time adjusting to the schedule’s busiest portion of the year.
“We’ve got players who have been through it,” Staley said. “Once you’ve been through it, it’s like putting on an old shoe. The younger players are probably the ones that have to mentally prepare for playing three games in six or seven days and it’s mentally draining on them.”
One youthful player which the Gamecocks will have to lean on for the remainder of the season is freshman forward A’ja Wilson.
Wilson, along with South Carolina junior shooting guard Tiffany Mitchell, was named to the John R. Wooden Award Women's Late Season Top 20 list on Thursday.
Although Wilson has only started in one of South Carolina’s 23 games, she is second on the team in points per game with 13.6 and is shooting 51.7 percent from the field.
As the season has moved along, Wilson has become more accustomed to the physicality down in the low post, she feels.
“It gets tough, it does,” Wilson said of the physical nature of the college game. “When things don’t go your way, the ref’s not calling the fouls, but you’re just really going to have to learn to play through it. I think that game by game I’m learning how to do that.”
Her last performance against LSU was Wilson’s best one of the year as she put up a career-high 26 points while grabbing eight rebounds.
Wilson and her Gamecock teammates’ game against Vanderbilt will be a tougher one than people think, Staley said.
Despite its below .500 mark in SEC play, Vanderbilt has an RPI rank of 46th nationally.
“Vandy’s always a tough team,” Staley said. “Their record isn’t any indication of how good their team is, how hard they play. We anticipate them to play like they’ve always played, which is very physical.”
Vanderbilt excels on defense, holding opponents to only 40.5 percent shooting. However, the Commodores’ offensive production has held head coach Melanie Balcomb’s team back this season.
Vanderbilt is averaging just 62.1 points per game, 230th in the nation.
South Carolina went 2-0 against Vanderbilt during the 2013-2014 season.