Final weekend, the South Carolina girls’s basketball group, coached by Corridor-of-Famer Daybreak Staley, defeated Tennessee 76-68 within the SEC common season finale.
Because the convention tournaments start subsequent week, the Gamecocks have all the things good religion to be the No. 1 general seed within the Division I Championship. And whereas Caitlin Clark has put a variety of concentrate on her particular person expertise, South Carolina has a balanced and profitable group.
South Carolina has 5 gamers averaging 10 or extra factors per recreation. They’ve 5 gamers with 100 or extra rebounds, two gamers with greater than 50 steals and two gamers with greater than 60 blocks.
And so they have 29 wins, none of which have had a profitable margin of lower than 5 factors. They’ve performed a number of nationally ranked groups, in addition to prime groups like UNC, LSU, Connecticut, Notre Dame, and final Sunday’s win over Tennessee.
Positive, it is easy to low cost South Carolina as a result of the SEC is out of the blue a little bit weaker than it was. Tennessee is not within the rankings as of this week. Kentucky, seen as a contender just a few years in the past, is simply 4-12 within the league. Georgia, a perennial High 10 group, completed its season 3-13 within the SEC.
It may additionally be modern to level to South Carolina’s wins over groups like Presbyterian, Morgan State and an 82-point win over Mississippi Valley State.
However I believe Daybreak Staley and her group are on a mission to win one other NCAA title like they did in 2017 and 2022. This group has all of the instruments.