South Carolina women's basketball: Five Things to Watch - Clemson
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South Carolina travels to the upstate Thursday looking for its 12th consecutive victory over Clemson.
1. Point Guard
Go ahead and pencil this in as the first thing to watch for every game. After a strong showing in the season-opener, point guards Raven Johnson and Kierra Fletcher were much less impactful against Maryland. They combined for two points, six rebounds, five assists, and four turnovers against the Terrapins.
Both players continue to play under minute restrictions, and Dawn Staley has tried to limit them to three minutes on the court at a time. That has made it difficult to establish a rhythm, but it has also made it a challenge for Staley to get her preferred lineups. One of those lineups includes Johnson and Kamilla Cardoso on the court together. Against Maryland, Staley flipped the rotation at halftime, starting Fletcher out of the break, to get more time for Johnson and Cardoso. It’s something Staley might continue to do, and she talked about how the pair, who played on the same UAA team, make each other better.
“They’ve got a chemistry, they’ve got a connection,” she said. “Raven forces Kamilla to do some things that she doesn’t do naturally playing with anybody else. She passes the ball high. She passes the ball up the floor in transition and makes her go catch and go score. She knows that. We’re intentional about doing that.”
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2. Tempo
Despite the work in progress at point guard, when Staley was asked what she liked about her team so far this season, she said she liked the Gamecocks’ pace.
“I like the speed at which we’re playing,” she said. “We’re trying to play a little more uptempo, convert in transition a little bit more just to alleviate some of the sag and zone concepts people play against us. I like the way we’re shooting as well. I know we’re not very efficient but we’re trying to take good shots. We’re aware of what’s good and what’s bad.”
When South Carolina can push the tempo, teams can’t focus their defense on Aliyah Boston (think the 2020 team). When they slow down, Boston becomes the center of attention both for defenses and for the South Carolina offense (think last season). Against a team like Stanford, South Carolina will probably be more willing to grind it out and let Boston do her thing, But against a team like Clemson, where there is a talent gap, Staley wants to run the other team off the court.
3. Don’t look ahead
Speaking of Stanford, the monster game against the Cardinal is up next. That game, on Sunday at 3:00 pm, has been circled by just about everyone since the schedules came out, and really since the home-and-home series was announced last year. It would be understandable if the Gamecocks are already thinking ahead, but they need to take care of business on the east coast first.
If the Gamecocks look a little sluggish to start the game, that might be why.
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4. Turning point in the rivalry
The all-time series between South Carolina and Clemson is tied at 33 wins each. South Carolina has never led in the series, but after winning the last 11 straight the Gamecocks are likely to take the lead Thursday night. South Carolina lost the first two games under Staley, but since then all 11 wins have been by double-figures, and the rivalry has become lopsided.
“I do remember the first two. The first two were buzzer beaters,” Staley said (her memory of buzzer-beaters is a bit fuzzy, but the first two were one-score losses decided in the final seconds). She added, referring to men’s basketball’s win over Clemson last week, “Lamont (Paris) put us back on our heels by beating them last week, so we’ve got to follow suit.”
Staley and the Gamecocks have turned the rivalry in part by getting all the best in-state players to wear garnet and black. The Gamecocks have the last two Gatorade Players of the Year from South Carolina, Ashlyn Watkins (2022) and Talaysia Cooper (2021). Last week they signed the top in-state player for 2023, Malaysia Fulwiley. It’s not by accident either, from the beginning of her tenure, Staley prioritized local talent.
“Our program has been based on us being able to get the best local players here,” Staley said. “We do a great job of giving them what they could get outside of us or more. We put them in a position where it’s more. We’ve created more for them to want to stay home. We’ve created an opportunity to play at the highest level, to play against great competition, to get home, or to not go home. They don’t always need to go home.”
This season the Gamecocks have three South Carolina natives on the roster (Watkins, Cooper, and Olivia Thompson), while Clemson has just one (walk-on Taylor Thompson).
5. Scouting the Tigers
Clemson has started the season 3-0, with wins over Gardner-Webb, Wofford, and Richmond. Nobody will confuse that for a murderer’s row of opponents, but Clemson comfortably took care of business in each game, which has to make Amanda Butler happy.
Clemson is coming off a 10-21 season in which the Tigers were just 3-15 in the ACC. But Clemson does return four starts, some welcome stability after Butler turned over more than half the roster last offseason. Freshman Ruby Whitehorn has added some scoring punch, averaging 10.7 points and 5.3 rebounds. Whitehorn, Clemson’s first McDonald’s All-American and highest-rated recruit ever (#15), will likely be guarded by Brea Beal. That would be a big step up in competition. Senior forward Amari Robinson leads Clemson in scoring at 15.7 points per game, but the Tigers will be at a significant size advantage against South Carolina. Robinson is only 6-0 and starting post Hannah Hank is only 6-2.
The Ws
Who: #1 South Carolina (2-0) at Clemson (3-0)
When: Thursday, November 17, 6:00 pm
Where: Littlejohn Coliseum, Clemson, SC
Watch: ACC Network
