Everything Dawn Staley said after South Carolina's win over Presbyterian
South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley met with the media on Friday following the team’s 91-39 win over Presbyterian in the NCAA Tournament.
Opening statement
DAWN STALEY: We were happy to get out there and knock some rust off. I thought Presbyterian did a great job spacing the floor and utilizing the weak side of the floor. They really did a great job at getting some easy buckets against us.
They made us adjust, and I thought our team did a great job adjusting, especially in the third and fourth quarters. Then we got some really good play. I mean, with the two that are sitting up here, Chloe was perfect from the floor with a double-double. Lay did a great job knocking down some threes for us.
Q. Dawn, Bree Hall’s status, is she okay? She just needed to stay out today? Got like a lingering issue or something that you’re concerned about?
DAWN STALEY: No. Not concerned. I mean, just something that we felt like we had enough to go into this game and win the game, then we’ll see how she feels tomorrow.
But she was fine.
Q. You mentioned a second ago about your team adjusting second half. Anything specifically you felt like they adjusted well to that can help you Sunday and going forward?
DAWN STALEY: I don’t know if Sunday it will help us. I just thought they thwarted our ability to guard on the weak side of the floor. We did a much better job collectively. Some players do have some work to do when it comes to that, but we did a great job covering up for — from the first half to the second half.
Q. You mentioned earlier in the week you stopped by the team hotel for Sacred Heart and Presbyterian. Coach said yesterday her girls were kind of fan-girling seeing you. What makes it important to do stuff like that and give these 16 seeds a good time down here in Columbia, would you say?
DAWN STALEY: They requested it. I mean, they requested it. You know, if — if they have enough just — I wouldn’t say gall, but to want to meet me, I’m going to make it possible for them to meet me.
Even if they just know some of the history of our game, I think that was really important. I’m all for making sure our history is in a great place.
But we talked more about me being on the Martin show than actually basketball stuff.
Q. Dawn, you knew you were going to be without Kamilla (Cardoso). The team has won all their games when she hasn’t played. Were you happy with how they responded to having two starters out today?
DAWN STALEY: Yes. Yes. I mean, granted, you want your full squad. We’ve been very successful when we’ve had our full squad.
We have two starters out, and I don’t — in preparation of it, I don’t think about having two starters out. We just are about who we have that’s ready to play, and we just try to coach them up.
So, they have had enough experience. Well, (Sania) Feagin started for us before. She’s one of our most experienced post-players. She did a great job.
Tessa (Johnson) on the other hand, she has to start here and there. But it was good for her to feel what it’s like to start. Because it’s cool to start, but to have to do that on a regular basis, it’s taxing mentally, physically, and you’re held to a certain responsibility every day in practice.
So it’s cool to do it, it’s cool to be that starting five. But then, you know, being come Game 5, half of the season, come the end of the season when you’re banged up, when you have to fight through mentally and physically, you don’t know what that feels like.
She’s got a glimpse of what it feels like in the post-season play, and she’s got her work cut out for her.
But I think she just held her own. Didn’t hit any shots today. But it was really good learning lesson for all of us and for her.
Q. Dawn, just your memories from the UNC game earlier this year. Played you close in the Sweet 16 a few years ago. What you’re looking at and why they’ve been able to keep the games competitive the last few times.
DAWN STALEY: What they do, they do well. They get down in transition. They push the ball at you. (Alyssa) Ustby runs incredibly well and they get her the ball early in their offense.
Deja Kelly is hard to deal with, especially in ball-screen action. She’s a seasoned guard that plays really well.
(Maria) Gakdeng is a great addition to their team, and she does a great job of holding serve in the paint and makes it very difficult for teams to drive the ball at them.
(Lexi) Donarski, great defender. She’s a dagger-like player if you give her open looks.
Just real great cohesive team that plays really physical. … There isn’t any — they’re not going to give you anything easy.
So it should be a battle. Should be a battle on Sunday.
Q. Chloe (Kitts) was talking about her confidence a second ago. Where do you see the biggest difference in her from last March, and how much do you think going through a tournament last year off the bench helps her right now?
DAWN STALEY: I mean, last year helped her work a little bit harder in the off-season to really understand what she needs to do to play at this level and consistently play at this level.
She’s really a freshman when you really look at it. So I think she’s handled it well. Again, it’s taxing. It is really, really hard to play consistently at this level. The schedule that we continue to have in the non-conference, our conference is pretty hard.
I think her progression is going quite nicely. She’s well above what a normal freshman plays like.
