South Carolina vs. Everybody
For the South Carolina Gamecocks, the journey to becoming the top team in the nation has been a long, arduous one featuring 12 ranked opponents and a tough conference schedule along the way.
Despite finishing the year 29-1, being the only number one team to avoid being upset, and earning a double bye in the SEC tournament, the Gamecocks seem to find themselves in a different battle; one for respect from national media.
Earlier this season head coach Dawn Staley spoke candidly on how senior guard Tyasha Harris deserves to be a first round pick in the WNBA draft, yet she wasn’t in any discussions or that high on draft boards.
Last week, Business Insider reporter Meredith Cash wrote an article for Sports Insider on the 15 biggest names to look for during the NCAA Tournament. Not one Gamecock was mentioned.
This drew the ire of the fanbase and later that of Staley who reacted in her press conference after the win over No. 12 Texas A&M.
“We’ve been tested. We’ve been tested throughout this entire season and they’ve passed the test. They’re good, no doubt about it,” Staley said. “I mean they’re good across the line. I know I’m going somewhere with this. Some people don’t even mention us in their articles. Not even mention one of our players. We are good and if any media person decides not to include us in conversations about best teams in the country, we need to get them checked quickly and admitted somewhere.”
But it doesn’t stop there. Tuesday night Rebecca Lobo sent a tweet with a graphic attached labeled “Who is Overall Number 1?”
Listed, in order, were South Carolina, Baylor, Oregon and Maryland. The interesting addition to the graphic was the four teams’ records against the top 16 teams recently named in the NCAA reveal. In that regard Oregon looked like the stronger team having an 8-1 record vs. South Carolina’s 4-0.
This once again upset the fanbase as they argued that South Carolina had played and defeated more ranked teams overall and the tweet and graphic further pushed the preseason narrative that Oregon was the best team and deserving of the top overall seed. Staley once again commented on the situation, quote tweeting Lobo and saying “really?”
Lobo explained that she believed South Carolina was the top team, her comments were directed towards the ranking of the remaining three.
Gamecock fans were still not pleased and proceeded to call out Lobo for what they perceived to be backpedaling.
Throughout the season Staley has been adamant about blocking out the noise, but at this point with NCAA tournament seeding at stake, she’s justified in making some of her own.
The Gamecocks get the opportunity to make a statement of their own on the court this Friday at noon in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament.