South Carolina is Back and Better than Ever
Behind a retooled offense, the Gamecocks look like the most complete team in the country early this season.
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Coming into this season, not many people knew what to make of South Carolina.
At No. 6 in the AP preseason poll, the Gamecocks had more question marks on their roster than anything else. For the last four years, South Carolina’s strength was its consistency and ability to build around 2022 National Player of the Year Aliyah Boston. With her and the rest of the “Freshies” class having graduated, the Gamecocks had no choice but to recalibrate.
While Dawn Staley brought in some promising pieces in the offseason—with Oregon transfer Te-Hina Paopao and freshman MiLaysia Fulwiley headlining the additions—there was no way to judge how fast the group would gel.
Three games in, and it’s safe to say pretty quickly. The Gamecocks opened the season with a comprehensive rout of No. 10 Notre Dame in Paris, before returning home and doing the same to No. 14 Maryland. As a comparison point, the Terps and Gamecocks last met in the Elite Eight, where South Carolina came away with a nine-point win. Their 114-76 victory this time around set a program record for the largest winning margin and most points scored against a ranked opponent.
After the game, Maryland head coach Brenda Frese deemed this iteration of South Carolina “better than last year’s team.” Though such a statement would have been inconceivable just a few weeks ago, Frese isn’t wrong. There’s still a long way to go until March, but this team has all the pieces to bring another trophy back to Colonial Life Arena.
South Carolina has thrived in the paint over the last decade, with its two national championship teams built around dominant post players: A’ja Wilson and Boston, respectively. While the one weakness from last year’s Gamecocks squad was the lack of a reliable 3-point shooter, their size down low and skilled perimeter defenders largely neutralized the issue.
But that weakness became glaring in the Final Four, as Iowa’s capable 3-point shooters pulled the Gamecocks out of position while barely bothering to contest South Carolina’s shooters themselves. South Carolina wasn’t actually outshot by that much—they made four triples to Iowa’s seven—but letting the Hawkeyes space the floor with perimeter shooters left the lanes vulnerable to drives. In the offseason, priority number one was not letting that happen again.
With Te-Hina Paopao, the Gamecocks seem to have found a fix. Not only does the senior bring much-needed leadership to a young roster, she’s been incredibly efficient in her time on the floor.
Despite playing a career-low 25.6 minutes per game this year, Paopao is outdoing her previous seasons across the board. Her field-goal percentage has skyrocketed to 53.3%, including 58.8% from deep on 5.7 attempts per game. Of the 353 Division I players currently averaging at least five 3-point attempts per game, Paopao ranks third in 3-point percentage. Though she’s taking fewer shots this season than she has since her freshman year, her 14 points per game would also be a new best.
Part of Paopao’s ability to put up such impressive numbers in less time is due to South Carolina’s pace of play. Traditionally more methodical in past seasons, no Gamecocks team has topped 73 possessions per game since at least 2009 (as far as Her Hoop Stats’ data goes back). This season, that’s skyrocketed to 80.3 possessions per game.
With Paopao and freshman phenom Fulwiley both thriving in faster-paced systems, South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley encouraged the team to play faster to accommodate. As Paopao is efficiently outdoing her past seasons and Fulwiley is sinking 36.8% of her triples so far, it seems like Staley made a smart choice. Any defense would be easily punished for sagging off of South Carolina’s perimeter this season.
Besides the actual shooters, much of the credit for South Carolina’s offensive turnaround belongs to Raven Johnson. The returning player with the most career starts in garnet and black (a whopping three), this is now the sophomore’s team to shape. So far, she’s more than stepped up to the challenge.
Johnson has shown tremendous growth from her first season, nearly doubling her points per game and rebounds per game this year while dishing out a remarkable 9.5 assists per game. Only two Division I players have averaged more assists over a full season in the last 20 years: Courtney Vandersloot (10.2 APG) in 2010-11 and Tiana Mangakahia (9.8 APG) in 2017-18. There’s a lot of season left, but that’s great company to be in.
As Johnson has stepped up, South Carolina’s assisted shot rate (ASR%), or percentage of made field goals that were assisted, has risen in turn. High assist rates are crucial for team success, as aggressive ball movement can disrupt an opponent’s defensive strategy, and assisted shots are, on average, more open than unassisted ones. This is especially important for facilitating 3-point shots, which are assisted at significantly higher rates than twos.
Last season, South Carolina’s ASR% was just 54.8%: good for 169th in DI. So far this year, that’s risen to 64%. With more 3-point shooters on this year’s team, having a capable point guard to run the offense and find those open players is crucial. Johnson has proved she can more than hold her own in that regard.
Make no mistake, the Gamecocks haven’t abandoned their DNA as a paint-first team. Their 3-point rate may have risen from 18.6% (the eighth lowest in DI) to 21.6%, but that’s still in the bottom quarter of teams. They still get 68% of their points from twos, a comparable percentage to last year. South Carolina hasn’t overhauled their game plan as much as added a new element to an already-successful blueprint.
The vaunted offense also hasn’t come with defensive tradeoffs. Despite working with an entirely different starting five, the new Gamecocks have kept South Carolina’s defensive tradition alive in large part thanks to Kamilla Cardoso.
Cardoso, the 2022-23 SEC Sixth Woman of the Year, was impressive last season in backing up Boston, but she has really come into her own this year. The 6-foot-7 center is averaging a 17.5 PPG/11.3 RPG double-double to go along with 3.8 blocks per game (BPG). Sophomore Ashlyn Watkins has also taken a huge leap in that regard, coming off the bench to lead the team with four BPG, good for third in the nation. With Watkins and Cardoso leading the way, South Carolina remains No. 1 in the country in both blocks and total rebounds.
Additionally, while the Gamecocks’ opponents are recording more points per game than in past years, much of that is due to the faster pace and increased possessions on which to score. South Carolina’s defensive rating, or opponent points scored per 100 possessions, is better than both last year’s Final Four team and the 2021-22 national championship team. In other words, it’s pretty good.
In recent years, the Gamecocks have been blessed with two generational players in A’ja Wilson and Aliyah Boston. With the loss of so much talent and the influx of new players, it’s only expected that they would need more time to regroup and gel as a team before making another run at the year’s top prize.
Instead, Dawn Staley has put together a team that keeps the same fundamental underpinnings but adds new dimensions by maximizing the strengths of the group she has now. The season is still young, but these Gamecocks look ready to make a deep run this March.
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Excellent analysis. Never under estimate a Dawn Staley team. Go Gamecocks!
That’s why Dawn is the GOAT!!!!