South Carolina women's basketball: Madina Okot is dominating, just like the Gamecocks want her to

This week, Madina Okot was named the SEC and USBWA Player of the Week, but the Gamecocks hope this is just the beginning.

With 4:11 left at Louisville, Dawn Staley called a timeout. South Carolina trailed 73-68, its largest deficit of the game. The Gamecocks hadn’t scored in over three minutes, and what had once been an 11-point lead was slipping away into a second consecutive loss.

Staley’s message was simple. Get the ball inside and get Okot involved. 

“We all know Madina is a great player,” Joyce Edwards had said a week earlier in Las Vegas. “We knew coming in she was going to be a star. I feel like she’s finally coming into her true self. She’s dominant in the paint. Hard to stop her. She’s very mobile. Great overall player. Now you’re seeing it.”

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Out of the timeout, a slow-developing pick-and-roll between Okot and Raven Johnson led to two free throws for Johnson. The teams traded empty possessions, and the Gamecocks got another stop. 

Okot skied over her teammates for the rebound and passed ahead to Johnson to start the break. Nobody picked up Okot trailing the play, and Johnson passed back to Okot streaking down the lane for a layup.

“That’s Madina, that’s the things she does,” Johnson said. “The coaches tell her to be dominant. She probably dwells on the missed layups that she had, but she finished the game like she should. That’s what we need.”

It was the first of three straight baskets from Okot that put South Carolina back in front. She finished with nine points and seven rebounds in the fourth quarter alone. South Carolina has All-Americans Ta’Niya Latson and Joyce Edwards, and Tessa Johnson scored 20 points against Louisville, but when the Gamecocks found themselves in a pinch, Okot was the go-to player.

“That was our number one option, is to get her the ball; she’s a high percentage shooter,” Staley said.

Okot wasn’t perfect against Louisville. In the waning seconds, she missed three of four free throws that could have clinched the game sooner. And as Johnson mentioned, Okot also missed some layups early in the game (after the Texas loss a game earlier, missed layups stick in the Gamecocks’ collective mind). 

Staley said she wanted Okot to remember both parts of the game. Learn from the things you can improve, but don’t let the mistakes detract from the positive impact.

“I think Madina has to be in more situations like this to continue to rise to the challenge,” she said. “I know she’ll probably spend a lot of time just beating herself up regarding free throws, the missed free throws, and the missed layups, but I mean, you look in the stat sheet, she’s 10 for 16. She’s got 13 rebounds, 23 points. And she probably doesn’t think she played well, but we don’t win if she’s not on our side.”

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Okot followed up her performance in Louisville with an equally impressive box score against NC Central: 10 points and nine rebounds in just 11 minutes, sitting out the rest of the game due to illness.

Okot is averaging 14.8 points and 11.1 rebounds this season. Nationally, she ranks in the top 20 in field goal percentage, hitting 60.95% of her shots. She is top 10 in rebounds per game, and her seven double-doubles trail only Raegan Beers, who has eight in one more game.

It’s reminiscent of the process Staley went through with Aliyah Boston and Kamilla Cardoso. Both players were capable of taking over games, but early in their careers, they were content to blend in with the rest of the team. 

Specifically, Staley pushed Boston for two seasons to be “dominant” before Boston understood what she meant, the same word she now uses with Okot. And like Cardoso, Okot is uncomfortable speaking to the media and prefers to let her teammates tell her story.

Compared to Boston and Cardoso, Okot is on an accelerated learning plan. In just a month of games, she has made great strides. But the Gamecocks are already moving the goalposts.

“We keep asking her and telling her and pushing her and encouraging her to be dominant. We have that standard for her, and she’s just meeting that standard,” Tessa Johnson said. “Soon we’re gonna have to exceed the standard.”

NEW! Message board for South Carolina Women’s Basketball!