South Carolina women’s basketball hits the road for a Top-25 matchup against Alabama. Find out how to watch and what to watch for.

1. Keep grinding

With all due respect, Alabama is the least glamorous opponent in South Carolina’s stretch of five consecutive ranked opponents. That doesn’t make the Crimson Tide any less dangerous, and that’s why the SEC is so challenging. 

Part of the challenge is the different styles. Texas only took five three-pointers in the entire game Sunday. Alabama might take that many by the first media timeout. 

This is where depth, and the versatility it provides, is an asset.

Against Texas, Dawn Staley leaned heavily on her more experienced players. Maryam Dauda and Adhel Tac played just nine total minutes, and Sakima Walker and Maddy McDaniel didn’t play at all. 

Against Alabama’s four-out lineup, it would be surprising if McDaniel sits again. Plus, Staley would probably rather not play Raven Johnson and Sania Feagin over 30 minutes again.

“We use it to our advantage, obviously, by playing a lot of players,” Staley said. “They all deserve to be on the floor. Some of them that don’t play probably deserve a little bit more. It helps in the whole longevity of a season.”

WIN TICKETS: Kim Mulkey and undefeated LSU are coming to Columbia on Jan. 23

2. Feagin

Speaking of Feagin, she was outstanding last week. Arguably, nobody did more last week to step up in Ashlyn Watkins’ absence. But that was just one week. There are eight more to go (plus the postseason).  

Will Feagin continue to play that well? South Carolina’s national championship aspirations might depend on it.

3. Streaks

Something’s got to give. Alabama is riding a 14-game home winning streak and hasn’t lost in Tuscaloosa in over a year. With all due respect, South Carolina’s streak is more impressive. 

Staley is 22-0 against Alabama. The Crimson Tide is the only SEC team (not counting newbies Texas and Oklahoma) that has never beaten Staley.

The series hasn’t been particularly close, either. The average score of those 22 games is 75.4 to 54.0, an average margin of victory of more than 21 points. Alabama only came within single digits once, a 62-59 loss in 2019 in Columbia. Ten wins have been by 20 or more, including three by at least 40. 

Since you asked, South Carolina was 10-15 against Alabama before Staley’s arrival.

WIN TICKETS: Help introduce No. 13 Oklahoma to the SEC and South Carolina women’s basketball

4. Availability Report

South Carolina’s availability report Wednesday night was as clean as it will be for the rest of the season. Only Ashlyn Watkins (OUT) was listed.

The only Alabama player listed was guard Sarah Ashlee Barker, who was Questionable. Barker was also listed as Questionable on Sunday against Ole Miss but didn’t play. She has been out since suffering a leg injury against Florida on Jan. 2, and Alabama coach Kristi Curry recently described Barker as “day-to-day.”

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5. Scouting the Crimson Tide

Alabama has managed a 3-1 league record without Barker thanks to the play of Zaay Green and Aaliyah Nye. Green averages 16.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 4.3 assists. Nye averages 14.8 points and is coming off a career-high 32 points against Ole Miss.

Nye is one of the top three-point shooters in the country. She went 7-11 against Ole Miss, her third game this season with at least seven threes. Nye leads the country in that category and is third in threes per game (3.6) while hitting 44.8% from behind the arc.

As a team, Alabama hits 38% from three. Sophomore Essence Cody holds down the paint, averaging 10.3 points and a team-high 6.6 rebounds. Without Barker, though, Alabama doesn’t have much help for Cody on the boards.

“They’re well-coached; they always have great guard play,” Staley said. “They can shoot the ball. If they’re allowed to make what they’re comfortably taking each game, we’re in trouble. (It’s a) hard place to play, so for us it’s just our habits. It’s just packing our habits and, hopefully, guard the three-point line and guard the paint.”

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The Ws
Who: #2 South Carolina (16-1, 4-0) at #19 Alabama (16-2, 3-1)
When: 7 p.m. ET, Thursday, January 16
Where: Coleman Coliseum, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Watch: SEC Network+

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Detainees are routinely subjected to the threat of stabbings, sexual assault and gang violence inside the crumbling walls of a South Carolina jail, according to a Justice Department report released Wednesday.

The Justice Department launched an investigation into the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in November 2023 based on reports of violence, homicides and unsafe conditions, said Adair Boroughs, U.S. attorney for the district of South Carolina. The probe uncovered a failure by jail staff to protect detainees from assault, partly due to chronic staffing shortages and systemic security issues, according to the report.

“The incidents of violence at Alvin S. Glenn are pervasive, systematic and commonplace,” Boroughs said. “Alvin S. Glenn is marked by a culture of violence that poses a risk to those that are housed there as well as to staff and to law enforcement.”

Boroughs said local officials have made some headway in addressing structural concerns through renovations but “widespread violence” at the facility continues. The Justice Department warned in its report it may file a lawsuit after 49 days if Richland County doesn’t address the dangerous conditions, which investigators say amount to constitutional violations.

The Justice Department under the Biden administration has investigated conditions at prisons and jails across the country, including in Texas, Georgia, California, Kentucky and Mississippi. Alleged issues at detention facilities include physical violence, sexual abuse and crumbling infrastructure.

DOJ blames chronic staff shortages for jail violence

The Justice Department’s new report said there were at least 60 stabbings in 2023 at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, which is located in South Carolina’s capital city of Columbia. The DOJ noted the rate of such assaults at the center roughly matches the New York City jails, where the city was recently found in contempt in federal court for systemic violence at its facilities.

Investigators blame, in part, a chronic staff shortage going back at least five years that has impeded routine security checks at the Richland County jail and forced staff to monitor several units at once.

Detainees were often found assaulted or dead only after medical staff made their rounds, officers came to deliver meals, or when a victim’s relative called the jail to report an assault, the report said.

In one case, the DOJ said a detainee was beaten and stabbed “multiple times” in three years at the jail, and in every instance, staff was not present. In the first stabbing, the jail took no action until the victim’s mother called two days later, according to the report. In February 2024, the same person suffered his fourth assault, this time by seven detainees.

The jail has also routinely failed to protect detainees from sexual assault, the Justice Department alleges. One person, who was admitted in August 2023, was reportedly assaulted by his cellmate three times in two days in his first month, but staff didn’t listen to him when he tried to get help. The DOJ report said the man “resorted to cutting himself in order to be placed on suicide watch, where he could report the rapes and get away from his attacker.”

The Justice Department did not name victims of the reported assaults in its report.

Chronic staffing shortages have also endangered jail staff. The Justice Department cited a 2023 study by the South Carolina Association of Counties, which found that understaffing at the jail “contributed to an increase in officer injuries and workers’ compensation claims over the past five years.”

USA TODAY has reached out to Richland County for comment on the report.

Contraband, crumbling facility fuel violence

In dozens of interviews with detainees, the Justice Department said many described being assaulted and confirmed unchecked gang violence such as robberies and extortion. Nearly all of the interviewed detainees told investigators they witnessed violence regularly. But the report said it is unclear how pervasive the pattern of violence is since the jail does not keep complete or accurate records of incidents.

The Justice Department said violence, including gang-related incidents, is fueled by unusually high levels of contraband such as shanks, drugs and lighters. In 2023, investigators said 150 weapons were found – almost quadruple the average amount recovered in state prisons in the U.S.

In addition to smuggled weapons, illicit drugs led to eight overdoses over the course of two months in 2024, the Justice Department said, three of which resulted in deaths. The report said detainees were able to get contraband in through holes in the building and that some jail staff also smuggled in items, including cocaine and oxycodone.

The report also criticizes structural issues with the facility, including holes in walls, ceilings and fences, as well as broken light fixtures, furniture and toilets that have been used to craft weapons.

The Justice Department recommends that the jail update its staffing plan, control contraband, revise detainees’ housing placements based on risk of violence, address maintenance issues, and revise how it responds to violent incidents.

Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said the jail has a “constitutional duty to protect people in its care from the horrific violations we uncovered here.”

“Incarceration in our nation’s jails should not expose a person to severe and pervasive violence like that in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center,” Clarke said. “Most people in the jail have not been convicted of any crime — they are awaiting hearings or trial dates. They have a right to be free of violence, threats and sexual assault.”

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCSC) – The state of South Carolina now faces a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the misreporting of a $1.8 billion surplus that never existed, lawmakers have confirmed.

Gov. Henry McMaster released a statement late Wednesday after a forensic accounting report that found the reported surplus never actually existed.

“This comprehensive forensic accounting report confirms that there is no $1.8 billion surplus. There is no missing or stolen money. The funds do not exist,” McMaster said in a statement.

The independent report, released Wednesday by AlixPartners, cited “unintended accounting mistakes made by different parties involved in state government’s transition from an old accounting system to the new accounting system,” the governor said.

“I am confident that the corrective measures recommended in the report will be embraced by the parties and the General Assembly so that this does not happen again,” McMaster said.

State Treasurer Curtis Loftis also released a statement on the report:

We thank Alix Partners for their efforts, which have validated what we’ve known all along – there is no mystery bank account with $1.8 Billion in it, no missing money, and all cash and investments are accounted for.The citizens of South Carolina can be confident that their money is safe. We, along with our state partners, look forward to reviewing the report in its entirety.

Click here to read the full audit.

The price tag for the report from the Washington, DC-based financial advisory and consulting firm, was estimated to be as high as $3 million.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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