For the first time this season, South Carolina looked dazed to start a game. Going up against Texas in the SEC Tournament final, the Longhorns opened the scoring with a 14-0 run and never looked back. Texas finished the game with a 78-61 victory and its first SEC tournament title, leaving 3-time defending champions in the dust. Despite the loss, Dawn Staley remembers a part of history that pacified the team.

The Gamecocks had not lost this badly in an SEC tournament game since 2011. The team just couldn’t find that spark, finishing  22-of-49 from the field for 46.9%. Joyce Edwards led South Carolina with 13 points, while Maddy McDaniel added 10. The rest of the team scored in single digits in their second-worst offensive display of the season. However, Dawn Staley is not pressing a panic button, as she sent a clear message to her squad after the loss to lift them up. 

“Our team knows we didn’t play our best basketball, not nearly what we’re capable of doing. I told them that the last time we lost in this situation, we won the national championship,” Staley told the media. “So you got to think about that. It might be the very thing this team needs.”

Staley is referring to their 2021-22 SEC Finals loss to Kentucky. A team with 9 future WNBA players, including an All-Star like Aliyah Boston, slipped to a 64-62 loss. After that loss, she had a similar tone to the one today. “Our message is we just have to be more disciplined,” she had said. “This loss is a lesson that we hope propelled us to hoisting the national championship trophy.” 

And it did, as South Carolina dominated UConn 64-49 to take home the title. And it hasn’t won one since despite winning its conference tournament. According to Staley, a change in perspective and a silver lining could help them improve their mental state as we approach the NCAA tournament. 

“It’s not what I would think yesterday coming into today, but now that we’re here and it’s a reality, you search for things that have a connection that can give your team what it needs to make this run for a national championship. ” Staley said, “I do think we have enough in the room to do that. We’ll rest and recoup at the end of the week, and start that journey.”

Dawn Staley’s side finished the regular season with just one loss, to Oklahoma. The team has evolved since then, defeating 8 ranked opponents in short succession. Maybe a punch on the mouth is what they needed to lock in again. 

“It sucks,” Ta’Niya Latson said. “It’s definitely going to make us stronger and better, and when we have times like this again, because the NCAA Tournament is not easy, I think we will be able to handle these situations way better than we did tonight.”

Winning too much definitely has its side effects. And recovering from a loss is as much about the mental state as it is about understanding on-court mistakes. However, to Dawn Staley, the loss was more due to the physical state of her players than it was about the tactical mistakes. 

Dawn Staley Points To Fatigue As The Principal Reason Behind Texas Loss

For Dawn Staley, there was a simple reason why they were dominated by Texas. “We just we just didn’t play well. We weren’t moving as quickly as they were,”  she said. Against a team like Texas, one can’t afford to even lose a single step. The Longhorns are peaking, they were coming off a 17 point win over Ole Miss and a 23-point win over Alabama. According to Staley, fatigue crept up to them in this game. 

“When you think about it, maybe it’s a little fatigue,” She said. “We’ve had depth when we got to this point and played our starters some heavy minutes. So you got to look at that and maybe think that contributed to it. A little mental fatigue, physical fatigue. But when you’re not hitting on all cylinders like Texas, you’re going to feel it in every category.”

South Carolina and Texas have played every day over the last three days, against tough opponents no less. The Gamecocks defeated LSU with 4 of their starters playing 30+ minutes. Joyce Edwards played all 40 minutes. The team is also short of depth as compared to Texas. The Gamecocks’ rotation is largely limited to 8 players, while the Longhorns have almost 10 players playing meaningful minutes.

Going into the NCAA tournament, they will have a weeklong break that will help them recover and reset. So, don’t expect this kind of performance from Staley’s side in their bid for the National Championship.