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

On Wednesday, South Carolina plays Duke in Las Vegas on day one of the Players Era Championship. Here’s what to watch for.

1. What happens in Vegas, doesn’t stay in Vegas

Given the advantage of a year’s worth of perspective, South Carolina learned a lot about itself in last season’s season-opener against Michigan, good and bad.

Chloe Kitts was clutch. Rebounding and rim protection were issues. The guard play was inconsistent. And some sort of indescribable spark from the national championship season was missing. 

That was the feeling on November 4, and it was the feeling on April 6.

The Gamecocks will learn a lot about themselves this season as well. Dawn Staley eased the team into the season with some easier games, plus an isolated test against Southern Cal. The schedule gave the Gamecocks, who return just one starter from their last trip to Sin City, a chance to develop chemistry.

Everything they’ve been building – the fast breaks, the chemistry, the hustle plays, the defense – for the first three weeks of the season will be put to the test over Thanksgiving.

“We’re a team that is (called) the Fighting Gamecocks,” Staley said. “We’ve got to get multiple efforts in that area. We’re talented, but if we see somebody who is talented, like we’ll see in the next few games, something has to give. I do think that area can be a difference maker of us winning or losing.”

2. Bench Production

Against Queens, South Carolina had all 10 players available for the first time in three weeks, and the difference was significant.

South Carolina got 33 points from the bench, the second-highest total of the season. Adhel Tac (11 points and 10 rebounds in her first career double-double) and Maryam Dauda (nine points) each had strong games.

But the biggest difference, despite only playing 12 minutes, was the return of Maddy McDaniel. McDaniel gives South Carolina a more fully-formed second unit and makes her teammates better. With two games in two days, South Carolina needs its reserves to step up.

“It’s imperative that we have all 10,” Staley said. “It was really good to get Maddy back, especially for a few practices; we’re just going to acclimate her back into the swing of things. I thought she did great. But, it’s needed. It’s needed for our rotations, it’s needed for us to practice, it’s needed just for some of our younger players to stay in the positions that they need to be able to be effective.”

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3. Chloe Kitts, Blue Devil Killer

Nobody is ever happy to see an opponent get injured, but Duke must be relieved it won’t have to face Kitts this season.

In three career games against Duke, Kitts has dominated the Blue Devils. 

In her first game against Duke as a sophomore, Ktts had one of the first big games of her career. She scored 14 points, nine rebounds, and three assists, and blew a kiss towards a hapless defender.

Last season, she scored her then-career-high 21 points and had 11 rebounds in a December win, and in the Elite Eight, Kitts scored a team-high 14 points and sank two game-clinching free throws.

Not having Kitts could be concerning for the Gamecocks because no one else has played particularly well against the Blue Devils.

Joyce Edwards averaged just 6.0 points and 1.5 rebounds against Duke last season. Tessa Johnson has been held scoreless in two of her three games against Duke, totalling just six points. Raven Johnson’s career averages against Duke are 7.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 3.0 assists.

Even Ta’Niya Latson, who played Duke three times while at Florida State, has struggled. She has averaged just 13.0 points and 3.0 rebounds with 2.7 turnovers.

“The fact that we’re missing Chloe was really a call to action,” Adhel Tac said. “It told everybody that we need to step up and we need to be able to still be together and not try to be Chloe, but be ourselves and take it up another notch.”

4. The Other Game

South Carolina and Duke play the second game of a double-header on Wednesday. In the first game, which begins at 1:00 ET, no. 3 UCLA and no. 4 Texas face off. The winners of the two games play at 8:00 ET on Thanksgiving Day. The two losers play afterward, at 10:30 ET.

Both potential games have juicy storylines, and both opponents ended some long Gamecock winning streaks last season.

Almost exactly a year ago, UCLA handed the Gamecocks a 77-62 loss in Westwood that ended South Carolina’s school-record 43-game winning streak. This season, they are two of the three favorites to win the national championship.

South Carolina and Texas are conference rivals who could be playing a non-conference game. Last season, they met four times. South Carolina won three of the games in blowout fashion, but Texas stole a game on its home court to end the Gamecocks’ SEC-record 57-game conference winning streak.

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5. Scouting the Blue Devils

Duke has probably been the most disappointing team in the country this season, the women’s basketball equivalent of Penn State, LSU, and Clemson in college football. The Blue Devils began the season ranked no. 7, but limp into Las Vegas unranked and just .500 for the season.

Continuing the football comparisons, Duke has been the Iowa of women’s basketball, doing the bare minimum on offense to win with stifling defense. But this season, Duke isn’t even doing the bare minimum. 

Duke led Baylor 43-40 with three minutes left in the game, but scored just nine points the rest of the game and lost 58-52. 

Then the Blue Devils led West Virginia 23-20 at halftime, but the Mountaineers led by double digits for most of the second half despite missing four starters and playing with just five total players, winning 57-49. 

Finally, Duke allowed USF to shoot 57% and lead by 20 for most of the second half in an 85-72 win. (Duke is good at scoring meaningless points in the final minute to make scores look closer than they really were.)

Duke is a desperate team. The question is whether the Blue Devils are a good team that is desperate or a bad team that is desperate. 

They look like a team that is imploding: disinterested, poorly coached, and with bad execution.

But the Blue Devils still have a bunch of McDonald’s All-Americans on the roster, including Toby Fournier, the reigning ACC Freshman of the Year, who South Carolina had no answer for last season.

The Ws

Who: #2 South Carolina (6-0) vs Duke (3-3)
When: 4:30 ET, Wednesday, November 26
Where: Michelob Ultra Arena, Las Vegas, NV
Watch: TruTV

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