South Carolina women's basketball: Five Things to Watch - Clemson

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1. Pump the brakes
After two dominant wins to open the season, South Carolina moved back to the top spot in the AP poll, while Maryland coach Brenda Frese said the Gamecocks are better than last year. 

Dawn Staley isn’t buying the hype. She is still preaching the same underdog mentality she has since July.

“I get to work with them every day and I see all the deficiencies that we have,” Staley said. “This team has a way, I guess in the two games we’ve played, to show up on game day and find a way to put some points on the scoreboard. Hopefully, that trend continues for us.”

In its first two games, South Carolina scored 100 and 114 points. However, the Gamecocks have given up 71 and 76 points in those games, a big jump from the 51.8 points per game they allowed last season.

2. Defensive deficiencies
The main deficiency that has Staley’s attention is South Carolina’s defense. It’s a 180 for a program that made its mark the past few seasons with a dominant defense and occasionally suspect offense. 

“Defensively I think we’re a work in progress,” Staley said. “Obviously our rotations are in place but they’re not right. We’re getting stretched out a little bit, exposed a little bit on some ball screen stuff that we’re trying to correct.”

“We’ve got to be able to guard our own,” she added. “We’re rotating because we’re getting beat. We’re getting good at it because we keep getting beat. We’ve got to get better at keeping our player in front of us and not triggering all that help.”

Staley didn’t identify Te-Hina Paopao by name, but Paopao acknowledged the defense has not been up to normal Gamecock expectations.

“In years past coach has had teams that are really good defensively,” she said. “We’re going to try to go to that standard.”

3. Dunkin’
Ashlyn Watkins dunked against Clemson last season, the first dunk in program history. She added a dunk against Charleston Southern later in the season, but the dunk against Clemson is the one that stands out. 

Now, Staley is challenging Watkins to take it a step further. 

“What would be impressive to me for Ashlyn is to do it in a half-court setting. We’re working on that. I know she’ll try if she gets the opportunity,” Staley said. “I think that’s pretty cool that we’ve got a dunker on our squad.”

4. More FAM information
Two home games, two conflicts. 

Thursday evening is the annual Vista Lights celebration. Gervais Street will be closed between Assembly and Lincoln. There will be extra traffic congestion and limited parking the closer one gets to Gervais Street.

5. Scouting the Tigers
Clemson hasn’t played top opponents (Winthrop, Charleston Southern, and Mercer), but the Tigers are still averaging 82.0 points on 48.7% shooting.

“They’re able to knock down some shots so they try to get up and down in transition and take the first available shot,” Staley said. “They’ve got floor spacers and people that can get downhill, so they’re probably going to try to trigger our help.”

Amari Robinson is averaging 20.7 points and shooting over 70% from the floor. South Carolina was able to limit Robinson to nine points last season, providing an interesting comparison point for South Carolina defensively.

The Ws
Who: #1 South Carolina (2-0) vs Clemson (3-0)
When: 7:00 pm, Thursday, November 16
Where: Colonial Life Arena
Watch: SEC Network