These 3 numbers tell the story of South Carolina women’s basketball’s dominant season
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
South Carolina women’s basketball has reigned at the top of this year’s Associated Press Top 25 poll since the preseason, ranking No. 1 through the first 11 weeks of the 2021-22 season.
Head coach Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks have tallied a 17-1 record through the nation’s strongest schedule, according to RealTimeRPI, with eight wins over ranked opponents and a lone loss in overtime at Missouri.
South Carolina’s players are aware of their placement atop the country, and they use their accolades as motivation.
“Any time we step on the court we’ll feel that everybody wants us,” veteran guard Brea Beal said before USC’s win over Stanford in December. “Everybody’s gonna play their best game against us, so that’s definitely the chip on our shoulder that we have.”
Here are three key numbers that have stood out through the Gamecocks’ success thus far.
Plus-17.3 — the rebound margin
The Gamecocks take pride in being a rebounding team and lead the country with a plus-17.3 rebound margin, dominating their opponents on the boards in all but one game this season — when Stanford grabbed two more rebounds than USC.
The next closest team in rebound margin, Tennessee, averages 16.6 more boards than its opponents. Coastal Carolina is third in the nation, averaging 14.9 more rebounds.
National player of the year candidate Aliyah Boston plays a central role in South Carolina’s rebounding dominance. Boston has totaled the third-most rebounds in the nation, 206 boards across 18 games.
Boston is second in the SEC behind Missouri’s Aijha Blackwell with 223 rebounds in 17 games. Blackwell, who is also the top rebounder in the NCAA, didn’t play in the Tigers’ win over USC on Dec. 30 due to health and safety protocols.
“Coach puts an emphasis all the time on rebounding the ball,” Boston said after pulling down 15 rebounds against Texas A&M on Jan. 13. “Being able to get my rebounding numbers up is pretty good, and that means we’re doing as she asks.”
Boston is especially effective on the offensive glass, totaling 67 offensive rebounds, the second-most in the SEC behind Tennessee’s Tamari Key with 68.
“(Rebounding) just gives us more of an opportunity to score and only adds more points to the scoreboard,” Boston said. “It just continues to benefit us when we crash the boards defensively or offensively.”
152 — number of blocked shots
South Carolina’s defense has suffocated some of the nation’s more productive offenses, stifling two of the nation’s top-15 offensive teams (No. 11 Maryland, averaging 81.3 points per game and No. 13 N.C. State, averaging 79.7 points per game) to less than 60 points each.
It’s difficult for teams to score when South Carolina is exerting its dominance by blocking shots. The Gamecocks have 152 blocks in the 2021-22 season, leading the nation by a long shot. No. 2 in the category, Kansas State, has blocked 110 shots.
Boston leads the Gamecocks in this category as well. She has blocked 54 shots, good for fourth in the country and second in the SEC behind the Vols’ Key, who has totaled 67 this season.
Four other Gamecocks fall within the conference’s top 11 shot blockers, including reserve center Kamilla Cardoso (sixth, 28 blocks), starting forward Victaria Saxton (seventh, 27 blocks) and reserve forward Laeticia Amihere (11th, 17 blocks).
5 — number of national champion coaches defeated
Staley’s Gamecocks have defeated every active coach in the NCAA who has won a national title, an impressive list of five — Geno Auriemma (UConn), Brenda Frese (Maryland), Tara VanDerveer (Stanford), Kim Mulkey (LSU, won championship with Baylor) and Gary Blair (Texas A&M).
ESPN Stats and Info tweeted Jan. 13 that South Carolina’s feat was the first time a team has beaten five different national championship coaches in a single season since the 1999-2000 season.
Staley said she doesn’t dig quite that deep into statistics, but the confidence on her team isn’t built with its wins over opponents. She said she focuses on the Gamecocks looking up to each other and focusing on how experiences against top competition make them better.
“I told our team this, especially our younger players, that they really don’t have to look outside of who they who they lace them up with every day to get what you need to get,” Staley said. “Like, your favorite player should be in this room.”
The Gamecocks have a shot to tally up to seven regular season wins over coaches who have won championships. Additional games are scheduled against Auriemma’s UConn on Jan. 27 at Colonial Life Arena and Blair’s Texas A&M on Feb. 24 in College Station.
Next South Carolina women’s basketball game
Who: No. 1 South Carolina (17-1, 5-1 SEC) vs. Vanderbilt Commodores (10-8, 1-3 SEC)
When: Monday at 7 p.m.
Where: Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, S.C.
