PHOENIX — With the women's basketball national championship on the horizon between South Carolina and UCLA, The Daily Gamecock's women's basketball beat writer John Davis sat down with Willa Campion, assistant sports editor and women's basketball editor at The Daily Bruin, to talk all things regarding the matchup.
The Gamecocks (36-3) will take on the Bruins (36-1) Sunday at 3:30 p.m. in Phoenix, Arizona, at Mortgage Matchup Center. The game will be broadcast on ABC.
Davis: Tell me about UCLA's season this year.
Campion: "Following up last year, a season where they broke a ton of program records, you had them atop the AP poll for the longest time in program history, reached their first Final Four in program history, and then that loss to UConn in the Final Four, which was the largest deficit in a NCAA semifinal. We sort of had this incredible season for what the program is, what the program can do, and then it was sort of marred by this final loss that I think in some ways dominated people's mindset of what the season was.
Coming back this year, I think that especially on a team that all five of the starters are graduating this year, so many of the members of the team are graduating athletes, I think that they really came back with a lot to prove this year. Especially in their final season, a lot of them fighting for that last chance to take a trip to the NCAA Tournament title game.
They're on the — another program record — longest win streak in program history. Even as they continue to be on the streak, I think there was still that Texas loss that would keep coming up. People kept being like, 'How have you learned from that Texas loss?' even as they kept breaking these records and still doing well. I think that was in the back of a lot of people's minds. Having that sort of odd win (Friday), I think does sort of get a little bit of revenge on the season."
What went wrong in that Texas game in November?
"I think what they did differently in (Friday's) game was they got out to that early start, which was one of the weak points of the game in November. They obviously did make a late-game comeback, wasn't enough, but the fact they had gotten off to that early deficit in the first quarter definitely hurt them in the game."
Slowing down someone like (junior forward) Madison Booker, what does that take, what did the team do so well to slow down Texas' offense to an extent that no one else had been able to all season?
"I mean, 3-for-23, she hasn't done that ever in her career. That was a huge part of it, and I think it's credit to the defense across the board because obviously you had a lot of different players dropping in on her and sort of limiting her impact. Throughout the season, that's Coach Cori Close's motto, 'Defense wins championships.' Maybe a really extreme end yesterday where you also need to have the offense, which they've proven they have even if it didn't show up yesterday, but I think that will be a big part of (the national championship) game too, continuing to limit those players."
Given both teams were worn down in really low-scoring affairs, what do you think happens in the championship?
"It could go multiple ways — they have another poor offensive performance, or it could come back where they're coming off this game where they have this national spotlight, and they didn't showcase the offense to the best of their ability. You saw in the Big Ten tournament, they beat Iowa completely. It was the largest win margin over a top-10 team in NCAA history.
I think (Sunday) they could showcase that offense again, and that could be a key part to them winning, but also as we saw (Friday), they won with just defense."
Is there any way to slow down (senior center) Lauren Betts?
"In the Final Four of last year, I think what UConn did is they weren't really double-teaming Lauren Betts. They chose to put all their effort on stopping UCLA's guards, and two of their starters had zero points. You can't do that in a semifinal. It's interesting to see how teams approach that. Some teams, you'll see double-, triple-teaming Lauren Betts to stop that ... You can focus on her, really try and shut her down, but maybe the focus is on shutting down the rest of UCLA's players, limiting that guard play since that is a big focus of the team."
How do you contrast UCLA's roster chemistry with South Carolina's postseason experience?
"All credit to Dawn Staley because if you look in the 2020s, it's been South Carolina as the dominant women's basketball program in the nation. They have that experience of Dawn Staley coaching here before, as well as, even if they don't have that player experience, I think there is something to be said for just having that program experience, sort of like having a coach who's been here before, gone through all these steps.
But I think at the end of the day, UCLA's experience, especially in terms of their chemistry playing together, ... sure, they have never reached this far in the postseason, but just the experience, ... I think just that confidence that comes with being an older, more mature player, that will be important."