Everything Dawn Staley said before South Carolina faces Alabama

South Carolina head women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley spoke with the media ahead of the No. 3 Gamecocks traveling to Tuscaloosa to take on No. 25 Alabama on Thursday night.

Here’s everything she had to say.

The kids can read the standings and they know the situation, but you talk to them about title scenarios going into this week and next?

“Not the scenarios, but we control our own destiny. I think we’ve put ourselves in a situation, we got a little luck with some other games that favored us, and I mean, we’re here. A regular-season SEC championship will be tremendous for our team.”

Is there a way to preserve the meaning of the SEC tournament, but also respect the fact that losing to another SEC team isn’t necessarily the same as losing to a different college team?

“Well, one, we don’t know who’ll be penalized yet for the SEC tournament. Two, your resume can upgrade from the tournament as well. So, you can look at it a lot of different ways. I’m hoping it doesn’t hurt any of us. I think our body of work as a conference speaks for itself, and we hope it will be, at the end of the day, we hope that all the teams and what we’ve been through in our conference will get the seed that we deserve.”

Over the years, you’ve had different teams and different scenarios to clinch that regular-season title, but what’s the key with this group? Do you motivate them in certain ways with different teams, or what’s it like with this group?

“I mean, I don’t have a feel, but I do have a feel. I always act on what I feel, and I feel like we’ve exhaled, because, you know, the LSU game was a big game for us as far as just another win, another tie-breaking win, right? And then we got Alabama on the road, who plays extremely well at home, and always has, and we always had issues there. Just have to remind them what’s at stake. You’ve done a pretty good job with, you know, winning 11 games in our league this far, and you’ve got to finish it. You’ve got to finish it, because there’s nothing more gratifying than winning. Like, your hard work produces championships, because a lot of times it doesn’t produce a championship, and we control our own destiny, so hopefully they understand that. If not, we’ll continue to remind them.”

Have you seen any letdown this week, or do you like the mindset going into Alabama?

“I mean, I do like the mindset. We had two days off, so that was kind of weird. We had two days off prior to playing LSU. And I do think some of the people really needed it. I don’t know if we needed it as a whole, just to stay in, you know, just to stay in some kind of rhythm. But it’s a normal week for us, so we practice Tuesday, Wednesday, so it’s normal, so there’s some normalcy to it when it comes to preparations. I don’t think we’re lacking in that. But we’ll see tomorrow night.”

How did you like the Saturday prime-time slot?

“How did I like it? I really liked it, actually. I liked the rest, you know, towards the beginning and then afterwards. And I know, probably Vic (Schafer) and (former Texas A&M coach Gary Blair), they’ve been pushing playing on Saturdays for a long time since they got into the SEC, and they were like, ‘Having a Sunday off, from a work-life balance, is a great thing.’ And I really enjoyed the Sunday (off). Like, I really enjoy having a Sunday off, but that’s only because it was a little bit different than our normal. But I like playing on Sundays, I like having two days in between, playing Thursday-Sunday, just from a preparation (standpoint). It goes back to the old Pac-12, where they played Friday-Sunday; that’s hard. You have to travel, that’s really hard. And I don’t think you would have the product that you need, or the results that a conference like us, you need, we need, in order for to get everybody in the tournament that’s deserving of them.”

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You recently mentioned you were looking to get another year from Madina (Okot). Has there been any update on that, or a response or anything?

“No, no response, but you really won’t get one until she’s exhausted all of her eligibility and then by then…it’s too late. But we’re going to continue to try to do that. If not, we’ll see her in the WNBA.”

You said years ago, when Tiffany Mitchell was on the team, she was always going to be the one that you trusted to take the last shot. Who would have that role on this team?

“I would say this. I would put the ball in Raven (Johnson’s) hands, to be the facilitator, because she’s really good. She’s really good at finding pretty much who should have it or, I think she’s got the confidence enough to take the shot when she needs to take the shot. So, when you got a point guard, you put it in their hands, and you let them play make, and they’ll figure out who the ball should go to. But, who the recipient is, that could be anybody. It could be Joyce (Edwards), it could be Madina, it could be (Ta’Niya Latson), it could be Tessa (Johnson). Like, she’s got a lot of options on the floor that she could choose from.”

LSU was shooting really well from three this season; you held them to just 17 percent. Alabama also shoots really well from three. Do you attack the perimeter defense strategies similarly, or are they very different teams in that regard? How do you approach that?

“They’re very different. You know, Alabama is a team that wants to get threes up. And LSU is, if you give that to LSU, they’ll take it, but they got so much, they concentrate so much more on their perimeter and their inside play. It’s not to say that Alabama doesn’t, but it’s a part of their game planning, and for us, they average nine. So we certainly have to limit the amount of threes that they take and they make. So, yes, making them to us is one of our keys.”

How’s Adhel (Tac) doing? Obviously she didn’t play Saturday, but just an update on her?

“Yeah, lower leg injury. Day-to-day.”

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In the LSU game, there was a big emphasis on rebounding. Has that been a focal point of working on rebounding as a collective unit going forward through the rest of conference play?

“We do a rebounding drill every day. We’ve done that for basically all season, and a lot of scenarios, not just, you know, not just boxing out. I mean, we do free-throw situations, we do late-game situations, we do on both sides, offensively and defensively. So yes, a lot of it will come down to rebounding, and it almost came down to rebounding at the end of the LSU game, because they got a lot of 50-50 balls and, you know, they got within one point off an offensive rebound. And luckily for, you know, the great eyesight of one of the officials, they saw Flau’jae (Johnson’s) foot on the line. And he actually called it a two. I didn’t know the people at the scorers’ table counted it as a three, and they corrected it.”

There were a lot of mental tests on Saturday, a lot of situational moments for this team. How good is it for them that they passed that test in a really hostile environment to prepare for March, where they will see a lot of those similar situations?

“I think when you go into a game like that, you prepare for that. Like, we knew it was going to be a hostile environment. We knew that there was going to be some physical fatigue. We knew that there would be some mental fatigue. It was about getting our players to make plays in the moment that they need to make plays. Our defense was not…was not good at all. Just our off-ball defense was not good. I mean, we are hanging on the players, and they didn’t shoot it well from three, but we surely played them, we were playing them like they were shooting the lights out from three. No. Just, I mean, unaware. Like, we were so unaware, and in a game like that, you seem to get a little bit tighter to your player and less about what your normal discipline and routines are. So, hopefully we’ve taken a look at it and hopefully we get back to just playing our half-court defense the way we need to, and hopefully get another win on the road.”

You talked about historically speaking against Alabama, it takes a lot to get separation on the scoreboard. You were kind of able to do that in the third quarter when they were here in January. How do you maybe apply that to this game on Thursday?

“Move the game to CLA. I mean, they’re good at home. Like, I was looking at it, most of our SEC teams are really good at home. A lot of issues happen on the road, and rightfully so, great crowds, the comforts of home is something we built our reputation on and that’s what teams in the SEC are doing. So, I mean, it’s another test, and hopefully we’ll be able to pass it.”

Maddy (McDaniel) was able to warm up on Saturday. Will she be able to play tomorrow night?

“Yeah, she practiced, so she’s good.”

Madina was great on Saturday, just how big was that game for her to really just be dominant in the post and just have a really great game and big game?

“I think she’s back from just, you know, she’s settling into the same. It happens to all of us, it just gets heightened a little bit more because it’s us, and she’s a big part of our success. And we knew at some point, she was going to hurdle it. We just didn’t know when, but now I think she’s locked in. Like, she’s locked in. She’s rebounding incredibly well. She’s concentrating on, you know, making her chip shots and I think she’s in a really good place that’s very good for us.”

Tessa Johnson’s kind of evolved to go from a contributor last season to a really key contributor this season. How can you speak on how she’s improved, especially from three, but obviously just as an overall player to start on the team?

“She’s a junior. Like juniors, they just have a way of understanding what’s expected. Like, as a freshman, they don’t know, they’re just playing. Sophomore year, they’re trying to figure it out. Sometimes they’ll take two steps forward, one step back, or two steps back, one step forward. Then in your junior year, you’re just like, exhaling. Like, you know exactly where you can impact the game on both sides of the basketball and she’s figured it out. And it should be very comforting to her to just know that no basketball situation should frighten her. There’s no dramatics to what’s happening, and it’s just her going out and executing the habits that she’s formed.”

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