Great Expectations: Gamecock women not feeling the pressure of Final Four

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The expectations around South Carolina women’s basketball have been simple all season long – Minneapolis or bust.

There’s a great deal of pressure that comes from being the wire-to-wire No. 1 team in the country. That pressure is nothing new to these Gamecocks.

“I don’t really tend to try to feel pressure or put pressure on myself,” junior Brea Beal said. “That’s when the boat gets a little rocky. I like to stay in the middle, not too high, not too low.”

The core group of juniors on this team (Zia Cooke, Beal, and Aliyah Boston) stepped onto campus three years ago with great expectations already heaped onto their shoulders to bring South Carolina back to the national title game.

They seemed destined for the national championship game in 2020, then COVID canceled the tournament. They were inches away from beating Stanford in last year’s Final Four. These players have dealt with championship pressure for the better part of three seasons now.

There’s a drive and desire to win a championship – but no pressure.

“This year I don’t feel any pressure at all,” Cooke said. “I think we’re pretty comfortable into what we have to do, and we’ve been doing a pretty good job at it.”

Only 12 other teams have been the No. 1 team for the entirety of the women’s basketball season. All but one of them went on to win the national championship.

“At the end of the day, we’re going to be judged by winning championships,” head coach Dawn Staley said. “Do we feel pressure to win? Yeah, because we’re a good team. Will us not winning define who we are or what we’re able to accomplish? No.”

South Carolina felt the pressure from the beginning of the season, scheduling six ranked opponents in the non-conference portion of the schedule. Their 12 wins this year against AP top-25 teams is the most in the country.

The only other team to post double-digit wins against ranked teams? The Louisville Cardinals, who stand as the next team to try to derail South Carolina’s journey back to the national title game.

South Carolina and Louisville tip off at 7:00 p.m. Friday night on ESPN.