Everything Dawn Staley said before South Carolina's NCAA Tournament game versus Indiana
South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley held a press conference on Thursday to preview the Gamecocks’ NCAA Tournament game vs Indiana.
Q. Dawn, Tessa Johnson’s jump shot, specifically her three-pointer, the first question is have you ever seen one that goes up as high as it did, and the second is when you first saw it, did you ever try to change it?
DAWN STALEY: Tessa’s three-point high-arcing shot looks pretty when it goes in, and it looks like it’s going to go in every time she shoots the basketball. Didn’t try to change it. She scored a lot of points in the state of Minnesota. If it’s not broken, we’re not going to try to fix it, and it’s working out well. We probably need to get her more shots, so we’re not getting her enough shots to see that ball trajectory hit the ceiling.
I think she’s playing extremely well, not just shooting the basketball but what she does on both sides of the basketball. It’s pretty impressive.
Q. During the portion of practice that we could see, you looked loose, you’re smiling, joking with players. How would you describe the intensity and energy here now that you’ve reached the Sweet 16?
DAWN STALEY: I mean, we’ve got a pretty loose team. You saw the beginning of practice and they were pretty focused for about 30 minutes, and then they went into a mode of being really loose but focused. I think they’re probably more focused than they’ve ever been.
But for certain amount of time in practice, I’m real thankful the NCAA only gave us 60 minutes because I couldn’t take any more than 60 minutes.
Q. The theme for this year for the team was love. What is it that you are loving right now about this team’s mindset and preparation?
DAWN STALEY: I mean, I really love this team, one, for just being their organic selves. We’ve tried to change them. We’ve tried to get them to focus a little bit longer. But they’ve created this identity where they hold each other accountable. They are in lockstep with each other.
It was this that was created out of the love for each other. We’ve had this before, but in a different way, like in a more focused way. Here, this year, this team focuses for a period of time, and they make you feel uncomfortably comfortable with how they approach the game, and then on game day, I would say 75 percent of the time, they’ve gotten us to a good place during the game, whether that’s the first, second or third quarters or if we needed to finish the game in the fourth quarter.
I never feel like we’re ever going to lose the game. It’s because of the love they have for each other and the love they have for winning.
Q. The viewership numbers are through the roof. The attendance numbers are through the roof. You guys are a huge part of that. You get to play now on Friday-Sunday instead of Saturday-Monday. Do you like where the tournament is right now? Is there anything you would want to change going forward, or do you like having the top 16 host and that sort of thing?
DAWN STALEY: Yeah, I’m pretty comfortable with — I’m not just saying that because we get to host. We’ve earned it. The top 16 seeds in the country have earned it. I think it cleans up the game a little bit, and it leaves, I would say, less of the control into the hands of the committee who has a big job.
So if we can get the 16 squared away, it helps them concentrate on the other areas. And I do think that people on their campuses have done a great job getting people to attend the game. I think our game is in a really good place. I mean, the viewership numbers are there. The attendance is there. The star power is there. The coaching is there. The backing of administrators for us, our local media has always been there; like always have covered our team.
It’s pretty cool to see. I hope that every team that’s here sends their local media because they do the heavy lifting of following the teams and getting it out to the national media.
Q. You said that you really feel like MiLaysia respects the game. What is it about her that makes you feel that way?
DAWN STALEY: I mean, one, it gets her going to class. Big. It’s huge. It’s hard. Like I think MiLaysia is one that — she was a star of her high school, so I’m sure she’s got a charismatic personality, she’s funny, she’s smart. So she probably utilized that to probably come late some days at her high school.
When you make that transition to college, it’s different. Professors want to see your face. They want to make sure that you are entertaining them in their classroom, in their setting, just like she entertains everybody else on the basketball court.
For the love of the game, she does the things that she doesn’t want to do so she can continue to love up on the game.
Q. You guys have started fast. You played really strong first quarters and first halves overall. What do you view the key to starting fast is, and is that something you message at this point in the season or do you assume that you guys are going to come out the way you have all year?
DAWN STALEY: We’ve had some slow starts. I think with this particular — I think we’ve started out quick and then somewhere in the middle of the season people have jumped out on us, and then we haven’t responded well until later on in the game.
But I think now, I just think we’re playing our best basketball. I questioned it going into the SEC tournament and then during the SEC tournament. We weren’t just clicking on both sides of the basketball. There were spurts of it, but when we had a little bit of time to practice between the SEC tournament championship and then our first round, I mean, we did a lot of rest, but then when we got back from our break, we just really honed in.
They were probably — they probably thought I was a little tight, they would say. It’s not that I was tight, it was more so that I knew what was coming down the pipeline.
They just have a way of making me feel uncomfortable.
I’m a look, sound, feel coach. If something looks, sounds or feels off, then I’m going to address it and put whatever prep we need to — whatever challenges we need to put in front of them, they have to meet those challenges. I thought they really did a good job of meeting the challenges leading up to the first and second round.
I do think they’re still there as far as practice. Although it’s shorter, but you know it’s in there. It’s really in there. They’re paying attention.
Q. In talking with the general manager here at the arena, he said they expected this to be the biggest NCAA event that they’ve ever hosted, and they’ve hosted many. He also expected it to be the biggest economic impact in the city, in the community. What does that say about the growth of the women’s game and the draw, bringing all those people into the city?
DAWN STALEY: I mean, it’s a double-edged sword when it comes to this answer. One is, I’ve said it before, that it’s been intentional to hold women’s basketball back. I do. It’s no longer intentional anymore because they see we’re bursting at the seams, and for the general manager to say that, he’s going to ride this wave as long as it’s high. It’s high right now.
We just want to be a sport. We just want to be treated as a sport. We just want an opportunity to be seen, and I do feel like there has been — it’s been very intentional to put us on TV, like our sport on TV everywhere. I’ve watched so many basketball games this season. I had access to so many games, so many Pac-12 games, Big Ten games, SEC games. Like you really had a choice to make.
I had to be intentional what game I was going to watch on any given day. That’s been super cool.
If I feel like that and I’m a women’s basketball enthusiast, I know there was access to so many other people, and they’ve tuned in and they’ve come into arenas and they’ve attended games.
It’s pretty cool to see us forcing our way into the space, and I just don’t think we’re going to slow down anytime soon.
Q. Kind of a good follow-up to that, I was just wondering about those games on TV specifically getting them on ESPN, ABC, FOX, like the main channels. I think you guys had eight ESPN games, three ABC games this season. Is that the No. 1 way, given where the game is, to move it forward and find more fans? Is TV the No. One thing?
DAWN STALEY: I think that’s part of it. But if ABC — if we’re on ABC, it’s probably only two games on a Sunday. It’s four teams. And it’s probably the same teams playing on ABC.
We’ve got to broaden that. Although we know the teams that are playing on ABC are the most viewed teams, the most popular teams. There’s more popular teams out there that we’re not broadcasting, and I know you have to start somewhere, so I don’t mind them starting where they can get the more bang for their buck and grow the game.
But when we get to a place where it doesn’t matter but it matters — like I’d like to see USC, the Trojans on. I’d like to see them. JuJu has got a big name, but the team, they’re a good team. We know there’s more than JuJu, so I want to know more about the rest of the roster for me because there’s a possibility we’ll play them, so I want to have access to it. I want to sit down in my living room and watch them.
It’s that part of it, and I’m sure it’ll get there. I’m sure they’ll play some ABC games next season.
Q. This year we’ve seen a lot of records be called up, whether they’ve been broken or players keeping them, Jackie Stiles, Kelsey Mitchell, even Pearl Moore.
When you see that pioneers of the game, even pioneers of the AIAW before the NCAA are a part of the conversation of arguably one of the biggest women’s basketball seasons that we’ve seen, what do you see as the value added and the power in that, and how do you introduce maybe some of those names to your players?
DAWN STALEY: Here’s the thing: Those are the forgotten names, and they’re only brought up because there’s a record that was being broken where we haven’t done a great job at historically producing documentaries on the history of women’s basketball. We have to do a better job.
Like this day and age will be documented and told a million times, and I hope when that’s being told that we pull from the legends, the people that have — we’re standing on their shoulders because of what they’ve done, and what they’ve done should not be forgotten.
It’s cool to hear those names being brought up in conversations because records have been broken. Now we need to do the entire documentary on it. This was then, this is now, and this is how we’re going to move forward with some of the more popular names that are out there in our game.
Q. Last time you faced Indiana, 2019-2020 season they handed you your only loss of the season. What role did that play in your team going on and not losing another game that season?
DAWN STALEY: Well, with this team, nothing. With me, it’s a vivid game that I remember us losing in the Virgin Islands. I actually looked back at that box score. They scored 20 fourth-quarter points. We scored six. Yikes. It’s a really good game. It was a very physical basketball game. It was probably one of the games that — we haven’t lost very many of them, so I remember the ones that we’ve lost over the past couple of seasons.
But well-coached team, did what they needed to do to win, but something good actually came out of that particular loss. We ended up winning that tournament in the Virgin Islands on points, so that was kind of cool to do that in Aliyah’s hometown. We had an island party after that. It was really cool.
Q. I understand the one game at a time mentality, but your team, but your team is four games away from becoming just the fifth school to go undefeated in a season. How aware is your team of that history? How important is it to them, and how much pressure are they feeling?
DAWN STALEY: They have zero idea. They have short memories. I mean, they only deal with the present, which is pretty cool. You don’t have to talk them off of a ledge because their thinking is going to be an easy thing. They take one game at a time.
I would say this: During the time between the SEC tournament championship and that prep time, I thought we were a little loose, and I thought we thought it was going to be easy moving forward, and my energy spoke to we’ve got to keep the main thing the main thing, and the main thing right now is our next opponent.
We didn’t know who our opponent was at that time, and then we had to do media for the first round, and I did hear our players talk about some stuff I’ve never heard them talk about that’s in the future, and I’m like, no, we have to talk about Presbyterian. That is the only team that matters at this point.
Like right now Indiana is the only team that matters at this point because the margin of victory is so small at this stage of the game.
This team really doesn’t know that. They know it from playing in the SEC and coming to some near losses. But they don’t know it on this scale in the NCAA Tournament. So I just want to keep them focused on what’s right in front of us.
Q. Coach, obviously you’ve gone against a lot of great post players and perimeter players, but I wonder if you could give some thoughts on Holmes and shooters for Indiana and maybe the different challenges, especially with Holmes having the experience she has inside?
DAWN STALEY: When I think of Holmes, I think of Pili and I think of Utah. To have play them gives us some familiarity with how they keep you balanced. Pili was one that you can get her the ball and she can go to work. I’ve got nightmares from that because we couldn’t stop her.
So we have to do a better job. Holmes is very similar in the paint. Pili was all over the place. Pili could bang a three, Pili can go mid-range, Pili can take you off the dribble.
I think Holmes is one that she does her damage in the paint. If we can get her to take some 15-footers, we’re doing our job. But we know that 90 to 95 percent of what she’s going to do is work us over in the paint.
Our positioning is going to be great, have to be great in order to contain her, and then their perimeter players have the ability to shoot the ball. They’re one of the most efficient teams offensively in the country, so we need to disrupt, we need to make them play a little bit faster than they want to play, and our defense definitely has to show up.
From an offensive standpoint, depending on how they play us, whether they play off of us or whether they get into us or somewhere in between, we have to move the basketball. The ball can’t stick. I think we’re our best when we’ve gotten a reversal or two and everybody touches the ball and makes the defense move. Hopefully we can have some of what we brought to the table in the first and second round.
Q. You mentioned the 2019 game. IU, similar, different than the team you scouted back then? What are common threads you’ve seen from them back then? Mackenzie is the only person left on that team now.
DAWN STALEY: I think basketball from then until now is much better. Like in that short period of time, players are better. Like freshmen are better because they’ve seen women play at the top of their games, so they come in much better prepared for situations like this.
They can be very similar in style of play, but they can be more efficient at what they’re doing, and to me that’s what Indiana is. They’re more efficient with what they’re doing, and it doesn’t matter their age. Teri does a great job of coaching up her team on both sides of the basketball. It won’t be a cake walk. I hope it is, favoring us, but I know in my heart of hearts, in my basketball knowledge and understanding of prepping for them, it’s going to be a really hard game.
