This season, the Lady Vols have added a wrinkle into the yearly gauntlet of the SEC for their opponents.

Tennessee hired Kim Caldwell who has employed her full-game full-court press and transition offense that won her a Division II National Championship with Glenville State and Sun Belt title with Marshall.

The Lady Vols next opponent is the defending national title winners, South Carolina. Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley, who has already won a trio of championships, is welcoming the new opposing coach into the conference.

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“I’ve seen the style. Not by any team in our league,” Staley said. “They’re very consistent and persistent with that and they make you adjust. Which I think is good. It’s good for our league. It’s good for just different styles of play. And it’s good for if you have a team like that in the NCAA Tournament, it’s good to have played that style.”

Staley has taken the time to dissect what her team will need to do have success. With the shooting ability of almost everyone on the roster, it spaces things out and emphasizes the need to win one-on-one defensive opportunities.

She is also hoping to prevent turnovers on offense. In the inevitable situation that her team does cough the ball up, she’s just hoping they do a good job of getting back on defense.

“It’s great. It’s a great up-tempo style,” Staley said. “It’s fluid. Anybody has an opportunity to shoot threes. They space you out. It’s just really different. They rebound the basketball, as well. They pressure you. There’s certain things that we need to take care of. The ball is one. Two is defending our turnovers if we do turn it over. Three is obviously transition and the 3-point line. And fourth, we’ve got to defend. Although you’re not going to disrupt them so much because they space you out, we’ve got to be able to guard one-on-one.”

The result that Staley envisions is a close game. That’s what Tennessee has been able to do against other top teams its played.

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In clashes against top-10 opponents LSU and Oklahoma at home, it was just one-possession separating the teams. In another game against a top-10 squad, the Lady Vols fell by four to Texas in a game they led in late.

The difference Staley thinks will decide the game is simply who gets on timely streaks.

“I got to think it’s going to be a close game,” Staley said. “It’s at their place. Hard to win on the road. Different style will probably take a little bit to adjust to. We got to make them adjust to us and the whole objective is for us to adjust to them. And then somewhere in the middle, a team is going to have a run. I just hope it’s us.”

Spearheading the effective system for Tennessee on both ends of the floor is Talaysia Cooper.

Staley has a strong familiarity with Cooper with the Tennessee star beginning her career with the Gamecocks. Cooper spent her true freshman year under Staley before entering the transfer portal after the window. This forced her to sit out last season.

Despite the pair parting ways, Staley is happy that Cooper has found a situation that fits her. Cooper’s success is no surprise to her former coach, though.

“Great player,” Staley said. “We recruit great players. We have great players in our program. I’m happy for Coop. I’m really happy that she found her happy place and she’s in there and she can do it all. She can defend. She can score all three levels. She can play multiple positions. I think that style of play fits perfectly for her.”

Tip-off for the game is set for 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2.