A Familiar Road, Against Familiar Opponents, In Unfamiliar Terrain
By: Mike Gillespie
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Six inches of snow hit the ground Wednesday night, the second of six potential nights for the Gamecocks in Sioux Falls.
“Does it ever snow in South Carolina?” Tiffany Mitchell, USC’s all-SEC guard asked in Thursday’s press conference, just hours after teammates held a snowball fight outside their hotel.
“It’s been fun since we’ve been here,” said Mitchell.
The top-seeded Gamecocks traveled over 1,300 miles to Sioux Falls to play in the South Dakota regional of this year’s women’s basketball tournament. Carolina was selected as the 1 seed in the Sioux Falls regional, a placement many in the Carolina community (fans and coaches) thought was unfair.
USC was hoping to be in the Lexington, Kentucky regional, a difference of 10 hours driving time for fans.
But that was more than a week and a half ago. The Gamecocks are now just enjoying the ride.
“We want to give our student athletes an experience like no other,” Dawn Staley said Thursday. “This is all of our first times being in South Dakota. We want to enjoy the experience, even in snow.”
Though the snow and terrain are unfamiliar, the opponents are certainly not. USC was placed in a regional with three other teams, Syracuse, Ohio State and Tennessee, the Gamecocks have all played (and beat) in the last year.
Carolina opened the season with an 88-80 win over then 6th-ranked Ohio State on November 13; USC topped 24th-ranked Tennessee, 62-56, on February 15 in a highly-contested game in Knoxville; but you have to go back to last year’s tournament for a score against Syracuse, a 97-68 throttling by Carolina over ‘Cuse in the second round.
“We have familiarity with all the teams,” said Staley. “The talent here is plentiful. This is a great region.”
The Gamecocks face Syracuse Friday night at 7 p.m. in Carolina’s third-straight Sweet 16. Should Carolina win, it would face the winner of Tennessee/Ohio State Sunday afternoon.
“It’s do or die, win or go home,” said center Alaina Coates. “I want my seniors to get a ring.”
There’s no doubt Carolina has come to Sioux Falls on a business trip, but the Gamecocks also remembering to have some fun along the way.
“We want to take care of business,” said forward A’ja Wilson. “But at the same time, we went to the mall.”
