Everything Dawn Staley said to the media prior to a top 5 SEC showdown versus the Commodores

Dawn Staley spoke to the media after being upset by the No. 16 Sooners Thursday night in Norman. The SEC slate continues to get tougher as the Gamecocks host the No. 5 Commodores on Sunday in Colonial Life Arena.

Here’s everything she had to say.

What was the main problem defensively?

“The main?! I think there were a lot of issues. I think sometimes we’re in a game like that, you can say we got exposed in certain areas, but we got exposed in a lot of areas. It’s really uncharacteristic of us, but you can point to the reasons why: we didn’t box out, right? We gave up too many transition baskets, easy baskets. If we get them in the half-court, I think our defense holds up in the half court, could have been a little bit of fatigue. Sometimes you’re in that environment, you just lose all of your habits. Unfortunately, we’re here trying to rekindle the good habits that we have. You take losses. Vandy and Tennessee are undefeated in our league. If you go undefeated in our league, then you’re doing pretty good, pretty damn good if you go undefeated in our league.”

What do you hope the players take away from a game like last week?

“Just the ability to take in real conversation. We talk real, we don’t sugarcoat anything, they understand. We need more from a lot of different people. We’ve got to make changes. We’re committed to winning, right? And winning by doing it the right way. You can patch it, you can camouflage it, but when it’s all said and done, when you lose like that, it makes you get back to the things that you do well. We’ve got to have better post play, we’ve got to have better guard decision-making, and we’ve got to have better defense. Got to have better oomph for what we’re doing. It just can’t (only) happen at home. You’ve got to do it on the road, if you’re trying to win this league, if you’re trying to win a national championship.”

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Can you talk about the last play of regulation and not getting a shot off?

“I didn’t want Raven (Johnson) to playmake. I wanted Raven to keep the ball. She was the one who was making shots. So use the screen, see if there’s an opening, and get a shot off, because you were making shots. It’s plain and simple.”

Is that something that Raven needs to work on, being a little bit too unselfish?

“I don’t know. If I’m shooting the ball as well as she was shooting the ball, I’m not going to defer in that moment. It was just us putting the ball in her hands and saying playmake. She must not have thought she had an angle to do anything, but I would rather a shot than a turnover in that situation.”

Two of the things you mentioned: layups. And also, you said something last night about wanting to win and how you draw the line as a coach, knowing those are two things that really have to come from the player?

“I’ve been in this game long enough that you just don’t rely on the players to have it. You’ve got to instill it, You got to enforce it. They have to embrace it, plain and simple. It’s not rocket science, it really isn’t. This game is super easy. Basketball is incredibly easy. There are things that you naturally do when you’re on the basketball court. If you can play to what people do naturally and read it, you’re gonna be pretty successful. If you aren’t able to do that, you’re gonna get rattled a lot. We got rattled, but again, all our goals are in front of us. The house is still standing. We’ve got bad weather coming; the house will stand even through the bad weather.”

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What do you think about what Vanderbilt has been able to do this season?

“I mean, Shea’s (Ralph) done a great job. You can almost see it coming, even though they were losing. You have to create this culture and this ability to believe. You get your players, and they’re all on that same page, believe. You feel good about what you’re doing. You create these habits, and you display them. Display them 20 times out. This season, they’ve been good at their habits over everybody else’s habits. So we got to get better. We got to get better to be like them, to be perfect.”

They have a really good freshman in (Aubrey) Galvan. It’s not just (Mikayla) Blakes that rolls their offense, what does that pose to your guard defense?

“Playing against a really good point guard. Everything that Oklahoma presented to us is there with Vandy. So if you want to do over, here’s the do-over in every facet of where we got beat. So hopefully we can take care of that.”

The NCAA changed the transfer portal window. What are your thoughts on the new window?

“I mean, since we’ve been the brunt of not being able to capitalize in the space because we’ve been at the Final Four. I think it’s great. I think it pushes it back, but certainly, people are going to be recruiting well before that period, so will we.”

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