South Carolina women’s basketball wraps up the first half of the SEC season with a trip to Tennessee. Find out how to watch and what to watch for against the No. 17 Lady Vols.
1. Run Run Run
Tennessee is the highest-scoring team in the nation, averaging 93.4 points per game. That is nothing new for South Carolina, who is coming off of games against teams ranked fourth, 15th, fourth, and third entering the game.
Tennessee is different from those other teams, though. Tennessee leads the country with 33.9 three-point attempts per game, and the Lady Vols want to run and shoot for 40 minutes.
On offense, they want to get up as many shots, especially threes, as possible. On defense, Tennessee presses and traps full court to make everything difficult. It wears opponents down physically and mentally, and all five players have to be on the same page.
“Being decisive and just going to the ball, meeting passes,” Te-Hina Paopao said. “Just being really decisive with the ball and knowing what you want to do with it.”
Against the Lady Vols, you have to be patient on offense, protect the ball, and not get sped up. Defensively, you have to stay glued to your player. The Lady Vols have issues scoring in the halfcourt when they aren’t getting stops.
“There are certain things we need to take care of,” Dawn Staley said. “The ball is one. Two is defending our turnovers if we do turn the ball over. Three is obviously transition and the three-point line. Four is we’ve got to defend. Although you’re not going to disrupt them so much because they space you out, we’ve got to handle being able to guard one-on-one.”
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2. Depth
Both South Carolina and Tennessee use a lot of players. Tennessee has 10 players playing between 13 and 25 minutes.
The Lady Vols aren’t afraid to substitute all five players at once. It’s all designed to make their press feel relentless and wear down opponents physically and mentally.
South Carolina did that earlier in the season, but more recently, Dawn Staley has preferred to frequently substitute one or two players at a time to stay fresh.
South Carolina’s 10-player rotation has shortened to eight recently due to injuries to Ashlyn Watkins and Maddy McDaniel. McDaniel has been slow to get back to where she was before suffering a concussion. She and Maryam Dauda have only gotten brief playing time lately, but this might be a game where Staley expands the rotation, especially if she needs another ball-handler like McDaniel.
“Good two days of practice,” Staley said. “I think she’ll play. I do think she’ll play. Her speed, her ability to be a little bit different than all of our guards, will pay dividends. We’re going to need that against Tennessee.”
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3. Three-point shooting
South Carolina shot just 2-13 against LSU and was 0-6 in the second half. That continues a recent trend. The Gamecocks were 10-28 against Oklahoma, but just 3-20 against Alabama and 3-7 against Texas.
That comes out to 26.5% (18-68) over the last four games. South Carolina has shot around 35% for most of the season.
The strangest part of the recent slump is that most of the attempts have been open looks from Te-Hina Paopao, Tessa Johnson, and Bree Hall. That group normally shoots over 40%, but they are a combined 33.3% over the last four games.
They seem due for a breakout.
4. Availability report
South Carolina remains as healthy as it will be for the rest of the season. Only Ashlyn Watkins (Out) is listed on the availability report.
For Tennessee, Kaiya Wynn is Out. She’s been out all season with an Achilles injury.
The biggest availability question heading into the game doesn’t involve players, it involves Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell.
Caldwell said on Sunday that she plans to coach the Lady Vols Monday night, just seven days after giving birth to her first son, Conor Scott Caldwell, on Jan. 20. Caldwell returned to practice on Friday.
Caldwell missed the Lady Vols’ last game at Texas. Assistant coach Jenna Burdette led Tennessee in her absence.
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5. Scouting the Lady Vols
Tennessee rolled through the non-conference season undefeated, including a 139-59 win over NC Central, where the Lady Vols made a mind-boggling 30 three-pointers, an NCAA record.
It’s been a different story in SEC play, where the Lady Vols are 3-4. However, those four losses have been by one point to 13th-ranked Oklahoma, two points to No. 6 LSU, one point to Vanderbilt, and four points at No. 7 Texas.
Ten-point margins can seemingly vanish in a flash with Tennessee, who came back from 19 down against Oklahoma and 18 down against LSU. But there are also the dry spells that dug those holes to begin with.
“The different style will probably take a little bit to adjust to,” Staley said. “We’ve got to make them adjust to us. The whole objective is for us to adjust to them. Then, somewhere in the middle, a team is going to have a run. I just hope it’s us.”
Caldwell has remade Tennessee through the transfer portal. The five players who have started and played the most are all transfers. All but one, Jewel Spear (12.8 points), who came from Wake Forest, are in their first season playing for the Lady Vols.
That includes Ruby Whitehorn (13.5 points), the highest-ranked recruit in Clemson history, who has finally realized her potential in Knoxville. Zee Spearman (11.1 points, 5.9 rebounds) was part of Miami’s surprising Elite Eight run in 2023. Samara Spencer (11.3 points, 5.5 assists) was part of the mass exodus in Arkansas following last season.
Lastly, there is former Gamecock Talaysia Cooper. Cooper was a freshman on the Gamecock team that lost to Iowa in the Final Four in Dallas. When South Carolina added Paopao out of the transfer portal the following offseason, there wasn’t much playing time left for Cooper.
Cooper decided to transfer late and missed the window to be immediately eligible. She sat out last season and has blossomed into one of the SEC’s best players this season. At 6-0, Cooper is a long, rangy athlete with a versatile game.
Caldwell’s system has maximized Cooper’s strengths and minimized her weaknesses. It’s a reminder of how much fit matters. Tennessee’s fluid, positionless style and pressing defense are perfect for Cooper.
Cooper is averaging 17.8 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 3.3 steals, and is Tennessee’s leader in blocks. It’s a throwback to her high school career at East Clarendon when she had multiple quadruple doubles.
“A great player. A great player,” Staley said. “We recruit great players and we had great players in our program. I’m really happy for Coop. I’m happy that she’s found her happy place. She’s a bear to deal with because she can do it all. She can defend. She can score three levels. She can play multiple positions. I think the style of play fits perfectly for her.”
The Ws
Who: No. 2 South Carolina (19-1, 7-0) at No. 17 Tennessee (15-4, 3-4)
When: 7:00 ET, Monday, January 27
Where: Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, TN
Watch: ESPN2
