Everything Dawn Staley said to the media after the Gamecocks rolled the Tide

On Thursday night, South Carolina defeated Alabama 76-57 to improve to 26-2 on the season and extend women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley’s record against the Crimson to 25-0.

Here’s everything coach Staley had to say after the victory.

Joyce finished the game with 23 points and 12 rebounds, but it seems like she’s always playing in the flow of the offense. Can you talk about how efficient and patient she is as a scorer?

Joyce shoots herself out of a cannon all the time. I think she plays fairly quickly. I think her athleticism and her quickness really gives her an advantage to shoot the ball, to drive past people, or when she’s posting up. I thought we did a great job of finding her, especially when she had two feet in the paint and a guard on her. She won the matchup when there was somewhat of a mismatch.

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Where have you seen Alabama grow on the court since the first game against them?

Hard guard. They were a hard guard in January; they were a hard guard today. They run their sets with efficiency. I thought they turned the ball over a little more than they usually do, but hard guard. They’ve got players 1-5, and they’ve got a little bit of depth coming off the bench, that gives them a shot at winning every time they step on the floor. I think Kristy (Curry) does a great job of coaching them up. Once we all get out of the SEC and on to the NCAA Tournament, you’re going to see the effects of playing in our league in the tournament. It’s just tough in our league, night in and night out.

Joyce has played well against Alabama. Is there a common thread in the games?

I wasn’t really connecting the times that she played Alabama because Joyce does a good job most of the time that she steps on the floor. I think the floor opens up for her for some reason. They do some switching, they play some zone. I think Joyce does a lot of studying film, and she sees the gaps in what are presented to her, and she takes what the defense gives her. I liked her aggressiveness tonight rebounding the basketball. She needs to take that and be more consistent rebounding the ball because we’re a different basketball team when she brings that element to the game.

Madina Okot had a double-double in the first half. How is her confidence since she got back in the starting lineup? 

I just think mentally she’s in a much better space. All players go through a time during the season when it’s just mentally draining. It’s physically draining, but when it’s mental, it impacts the physical part of it. I thought she hit her stretch a couple of games ago where nothing seemed to go right for her. I thought we did some adjustments in our offense to give her some more direction as to where to be. It’s kind of working out for her. I think Raven (Johnson’s) done a great job with every step of the way, Raven’s there for her. Her point guard is there for her. Her roommate is there for her. She fought to help her get out of it, and now I think it’s just clearer. She’s just playing more aggressive basketball, and that benefits us, obviously.

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You didn’t call timeouts when Alabama made a run. How important is it to trust your team and save those timeouts?

All teams are going to go on runs. It depends on the type of run. Is it something that, is there a breakdown that we need to call a timeout and correct it? Are we getting good shots but not making them? There are all different types of runs that causes teams to go on. I just wanted our players to fight through, I’m usually not one that calls timeouts on a run, depending on what’s happening out there. If we’re just having lapses on both sides of the ball, then yes. But we’ve got a seasoned point guard. We’ve got a seasoned backup point guard that really knows the pulse of our team. If they get rattled, then we probably need to call a timeout, but they didn’t seem rattled. We righted the ship.

Can you talk about how Maddy McDaniel has been a boost to the team?

Maddy’s playing great. Maddy is just solid. She’s very predictable. She’s playing both sides of the basketball. She’s playing very confidently. In the games that she’s been out, we’ve missed her. I didn’t want to play her as many minutes as I did play her, but she was just playing so well and so comfortable. She looked like she missed playing basketball, so I played her a little bit longer than I anticipated, and she was playing extremely well. We need Maddy. Maddy makes us a better basketball team.

I wanted to ask about Okot’s two three-pointers and your confidence in her shooting those.

We practice them. She practices them all the time. There’s no need to just practice them, if there are opportunities for her to step out and shoot them, I feel very confident that she canknock them down. She feels confident that she can knock them down. Believe it or not, I do think Madina’s comfort level is facing the basket. We are making her get two feet in the paint and bury people and probably her most comfortable place on the floor is probably facing up. We want her to shoot more, whether they are threes or 15-footers, just facing up where she doesn’t have to make every score a hard one.

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