SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Dawn Staley and South Carolina are mainstays in the Final Four while TCU is looking to reach March Madness ‘ biggest stage for the first time.
The two teams will play Monday night in the Sacramento 4 Regional Final with a trip to the women’s national semifinals on the line. The winner will face undefeated UConn on Friday in Phoenix.
The Gamecocks have been to the Final Four in six of the past eight seasons and won three national championships during that stretch. Staley has been at the helm for all of them, including the undefeated 2023-24 season.
South Carolina has a big experience advantage over TCU, which advanced to the Elite Eight for the second consecutive season with basically a whole new roster led by Olivia Miles and Marta Suarez.
“I think they are very calculated and methodical and who they want to shoot the basketball, who they want to be play makers, who they want to be spacers,” Staley said of TCU.
Coach Mark Campbell has built his team the last two seasons through the transfer portal. He got six players in this past season, including Miles, who turned down going to the WNBA to finish off her college career with the Horned Frogs after transferring from Notre Dame.
“We’ve built our program literally all through the portal, for you guys that haven’t followed us,” Campbell said. “I think we’ve had 18 portal players, six each year. And our program’s come a long ways. There’s a lot of negative you hear about the portal. I think there’s a lot of positive too.”
While most of his team hasn’t been to the Elite Eight, Campbell insists he learned a lot from last season when the Horned Frogs lost to Texas. A lot of last year was a blur to Campbell.
“I’m much more prepared in leading our team and understanding and navigating the next 48 hours,” Campbell said after the Sweet 16 win over Virginia. “Then your margin for error, once you get to an Elite Eight, the teams that you’re going to face are just incredible. We have done a better job as a staff getting ahead of that scout and getting a game plan dialed in.”
Stopping Olivia and Marta
South Carolina will need to figure out a way to slow Miles and Suarez down. The pair combined to either score or assist on all 79 of TCU’s points in the Virginia win.
“We need everybody. In order to beat South Carolina, we’ve got to play the best game we’ve played this season,” Campbell said. “We’re capable of doing it.”
Miles, a senior All-America guard, has had a stellar NCAA run. She’s played with a sense of urgency and renewed excitement, upping her play in the tournament.
Miles is averaging 19.3 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in three games.
“They play at a slower pace and control the tempo. Somehow we need to speed that up whether it’s through pressure or other way to doing things,” Staley said. “We’re up for the challenge.”
Dominant performances
South Carolina has raised its level of play in the NCAA Tournament, averaging nearly 100 points a game in the three victories. The Gamecocks are winning by an average of 45 points a game. They have been scoring in a variety of ways. In the victory over Oklahoma, they made 10 of 14 3-point attempts. Earlier games it was the post players who were the main source of offense.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness