CLEVELAND — As Dawn Staley stood before her team during a meeting a night before the national championship game, she took a swig of water and began to cough. “You about to cry, Coach?” a player called from the back of the room. “No,” she said and then paused. “But I might on Sunday if…
CLEVELAND — Everyone wanted to talk about the game, which was expected after the South Carolina women’s basketball team held off Iowa for an 87-75 victory and second national championship in three years. But Dawn Staley also wanted to talk about the other game. Actually, that’s not strong enough. She was going to discuss it….
ALBANY, N.Y. — Guard Raven Johnson stood at halfcourt dribbling out the game clock, seemingly the only Gamecock who hadn’t yet begun to celebrate South Carolina’s 70-58 win over Oregon State. Bree Hall and Tessa Johnson embraced and hopped in unison. The coaches hugged and huddled on the bench. Finally, the buzzer rang and South…
The Sweet 16 field is set — mostly as we expected it but with some twists. The left side of the bracket (Albany 1 and Portland 4 regions) includes every No. 1 through No. 4 seed, while the right side (Albany 2 and Portland 3 regions) low seeds include a No. 5 and a No….
Welcome back to Bracket Breakers! We know you’ve missed us, and we can’t wait to overwhelm you with our unique take on NCAA tournament upsets, powered by our proprietary statistical model, Slingshot. Hopefully, you’ve been following our work for years. But if you’re new to Bracket Breakers, here’s the most recent explanation of who we…
After five months of regular-season and conference tournament action, we have finally reached the best stretch of the year. It’s March Madness, and it’s setting up to be yet another eventful NCAA Tournament. At 32-0, South Carolina seems like the easy pick to make it to the championship game, but we thought that last year,…
There’s always a sign. Last spring, I first noticed something special was happening when I couldn’t walk half a block in Dallas without running into large packs of Iowa or South Carolina fans. There were also my guy friends back home who, for the first time, were planning their weekend around the women’s NCAA Tournament…
The rivalry between SEC foes LSU and South Carolina reached new heights when an altercation broke out during the conference championship game Sunday. Multiple players were ejected, and Gamecocks center Kamilla Cardoso has been suspended for the first game of the NCAA Tournament, the SEC confirmed to The Athletic on Monday. Wondering what happened between…
It’s a little after 11 a.m. on an unnervingly cold December day, and Isaac Prewitt exhales. Hands on hips, cheeks puffed out, the whole deal. His morning had been relatively easy for a while: Play dummy defense against pick-and-rolls; needle his friend about an incoming shipment of Gatorade Fit drinks; run some zone offense. A…
Let’s begin with the play, because what else initially comes to mind when thinking of South Carolina star freshman MiLaysia Fulwiley? You know the one. Against No. 10 Notre Dame, in the season opener, in Paris. Fulwiley receives an inbounds pass with just over two minutes to go until halftime and begins galloping up the…
