Everything South Carolina's Dawn Staley said after exhibition win over No. 11 North Carolina

South Carolina women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley spoke to the media after an exhibition win over No. 11 North Carolina at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, GA.

Here’s everything she had to say.

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Joyce Edwards brought the ball up the court a lot in the first half. Is that by design or something that you might like to do?

“It wasn’t by design. I mean, she obviously could handle the basketball. I thought our point guards deferred a little bit too much, but she’s capable. I mean, in the national championship game, they had to handle the basketball. So it’s not a foreign thing to them. I’d like for our point guards to kind of hold it a little bit, maybe use Joyce as a screener and stay in transition a little bit longer with their decision makers early in the possession.”

Ayla McDowell didn’t play today. Was that a coach decision or something different?

“Yeah, she’s been sick. So, I mean, she’s been sick last, probably, couple of days, and she probably could have played, but she didn’t really feel that well in shootaround. So I just decided she could’ve braved through it, but I decided just to allow her to get better so she can be ready for the regular season.”

UNC had some success with transition. How were they able to do that, and how are you able to stop that?

“I mean, when you turn the ball over, as much as we did, especially in the fourth quarter, it becomes a lot easier, because you create an advantage. And they’re a transition team, and would probably much prefer to play in transition like all of us, where you just get ahead of the possession, and you stay ahead of the possession. And they did a really good job of just really being scrappy and getting loose balls, and they got 14 offensive rebounds. So it was more of them being super physical, scrappy, and had a want about them.”

First of all, thanks for accepting this game here in Atlanta. It gives us a chance to see Ta’Niya Latson and Raven Johnson; otherwise, they wouldn’t get to come here. Talk about reuniting them.

“I mean, when we were approached about doing a game here in Atlanta, I mean, we instantly took the game, obviously going to bring Raven (and) Ta’Niya back home, we couldn’t get games here in Atlanta, so this was the next best thing, and fortunately for us, Ta’Niya, had transferred and Raven stayed another another year for us to actually allow us to celebrate them on their own journey.”

I know she played in the second half, but just verbal confirmation that Raven’s okay?

“Yeah. I mean, we’ll see what she feels like tomorrow, it’s probably gonna hurt a little bit, probably a little bit sore tomorrow. But Raven’s tough. Raven’s tough. Raven can run around. She’s, look, she’s gonna play. She’s gonna practice, she’s gonna play.”

Tessa Johnson and Madina Okot had a little bit of foul trouble there. How do you feel like you’re kind of able to adapt and flex the rotation?

“I would say Tessa’s defense came, I mean, Tessa’s fouls came from playing defense like she was really guarding. And sometimes, when you’re guarding as well as she was guarding, you’re going to award yourself some fouls here and there. Obviously, for her, this is not trying to take a charge when she’s already somewhat in foul trouble, and then others, you just gotta sometimes give up the two points to stay on the floor.”

“For Madina, I think they attacked her, you know, they put her in a position where she either fouled, and she did, but she’ll make the adjustment. You know, I think we get some switching. Put her position where she had to guard some guards that attacked her. She’s got to do a better job, and she’s got to do a better job of getting in (her) stance; it’s just too far away. So because she can guard like she can guard a guard, there’s no doubt in my mind, if we, if we’re switching with her, that she can’t guard a guard.”

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Maryam Dauda has been a lot more aggressive. How much has that grown, and how much have you challenged her?

“I’m proud of Maryam. She’s been working her tail off like, like, all summer long, gave up her summer to stay here and work out. And now, you know, the games are a lot cleaner for her. Like, she can see things a lot better. She could process things a lot better and make like, we do this thing and come to school, we think, who’s gonna who’s gonna play well today? And my choice was Maryam.”

“I knew Maryam was gonna play well because things will be clear like her and Adel (Tac) both are. They’re actually doing things that Joyce and Madina aren’t doing; they have to, that’s one, but they’re defending at a high rate. They’re rebounding at a high rate. They’re just more really aware of what’s happening. And you need for role players like them to play that way, distinctively different than how our starters are playing. And they just, they’re going to allow us to go deep. And have the depth that we’ve had in previous years.”

Agot had some good and some bad today. What did you see of her game?

“Freshman. You know, just really careless with the ball. I think we have to make some adjustments with her, as far as getting the Highlighters to play a little bit more aggressive. They are. It’s stuff that we’ve seen in practice. So it’s not like, you know, they were new mistakes. We’ve seen her before. She’s a great passer. She’s got a great court vision. Start getting rid of it a little bit quicker, and make a quicker decision with the basketball. But that’s just, that’s, that’s sort of watch film, and she’ll make adjustments. She’s really a high-IQ player.

Ball movement, how are you kind of seeing it, and communication on defense?

“We need to get better. That’s one thing. And you have to understand this is a totally different basketball team, like totally, and we’ve only been together, really, as a team since the end of August. So we don’t have the continuity, the flow, and the chemistry that we need. It’s a lot better than we’ve seen and a lot better than we played against Anderson.”

“So, you know some things like, we got players who can score the ball. So they would, they would bet on (them)self first. But sometimes, you know, when you make an extra pass, it just stabs the defense a little bit, you know, deeper, and they have to get the understanding of that. But I was proud. There were a lot of things that we could take that’s good from the film. There’s lots of things that we got to work on. And I’m glad it wasn’t a game that got out of hand. We actually get some footage that will help us get better.

What kind of potential do you see from this North Carolina team?

“I mean, for one, they defend, right? They give multiple efforts. They got people that can flat out shoot the basketball. They have people that can penetrate and get to the basket. I mean, they’re not totally healthy either, because they got two players that played a big role for them. So it’s only allowing the young players to get, you know, some great minutes and some experience. So you know they’re going to challenge in the ACC for sure. Everybody needs to stay healthy, so you can actually see what they’re capable of doing.”

Season starts on Monday. Is there one thing above all that says we’ve got to get this fixed?

“Defensively, we’ve got to be better connected than we are. And when we are, you’ll see the fouls clean up. But the fouling is attributed to bad rotations and bad connection. And we really aren’t used to that right now. It’s about building chemistry with the players that you’re playing with, and that’s that’s really hard.”

“You need game experiences to do that, like even Joyce and Madina don’t have, you know, the best chemistry right now. I mean, if we had Chloe (Kitts), Chloe and Joyce would probably play a little bit better together. And you can cheat some place here, knowing that Chloe is aware of it. So we got game that Ta’Niya, you know, same thing. With just our starting group, they just got to get better connected from a defensive standpoint, but the effort (is) going to be there.”

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