The University of South Carolina women’s basketball team are the reigning NCAA champions. With SEC conference play well under way, they are still undefeated with no sign of slowing down. In fact, the Gamecocks have not lost a basketball game since March 6 of last year, in the SEC championship game by 2 points. And before that they only lost once more in December, to a conference opponent by 1 point. I would say that the Gamecock’s run of dominance is unprecedented, but we have already seen this happen with Geno Auriemma’s UConn Huskies. But it is clear that the torch has been passed, and the ladies from South Carolina are the new queens of the hardwood. The thing is that UConn never agreed to pass the torch atop women’s college basketball. South Carolina took it by force, by doing exactly what Uconn did, out recruiting the entire nation.

South Carolina has the best players… and it’s not close

On March 18, 2022 South Carolina played their first round NCAA tournament game against Howard University. Howard made the tournament as the MEAC conference champion, only to lose that game at a score of 79 to 21. I watched that game live, and it did not look like the Lady Bison belonged on the same Division 1 court with South Carolina. But what could one expect.

South Carolina has been on a recruiting tear as of late. Bringing in 4 of the top 11 recruits on the 2019 ESPN HoopGurlz rankings. And in 2021 they followed that up with 4 of the top 14, including recruits 2, 3, and 4. South Carolina can parade a roster of high school All Americans onto the court to start the game, and then rotate in some more from their bench. This means that when they play a team like Howard, who wins D1 college basketball games, they could probably play that game without any of their starters and still win going away. In fact, they have women who won’t crack the Gamecocks rotation, who likely would be the best player on the team if they played for the opponent. 

South Carolina transfers in the best of the best

On top of having, the most talented batch of recruits in recent memory, Dawn Staley’s coaching staff has used the transfer portal to bolster key positions on their roster. That’s not such a big deal since everyone else in the Power 5 is doing it, until you realize who they are getting back. On this year’s team The Gamecocks brough in a graduate transfer, who was a 5 star recruit in her initial class four years ago and a career 1000 point scorer in college. In addition they brough in another power 5 transfer, whom as you may have guessed was also a 5 star recruit. But she was the fifth ranked recruit overall, number 1 at her position in her class, and former ACC defensive player of the year.

It is almost unfair how much talent South Carolina has been able to amass onto their roster. And the scores of their games seem to back that up. The Gamecocks have won 6 of their games by fewer than 20 points through the first 20 games of the season. And on the other end they have won 10 games by 40 points or more! Several of those games were against SEC opponents. In general, if you have the best players, you are going to win the game. And South Carolina has embraced this so well in fact that most of their games against Division 1 opponents, are blowouts before the second half even gets started.

South Carolina players don’t leave campus early

The Gamecocks have also gotten to benefit from the current state of women’s college basketball. Where there is little incentive from women to leave early, especially in the age of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals. Unlike the NBA, the WNBA doesn’t offer the promise of guaranteed millions via salary, so recruiting well does not require a coach to restock every year after one and done players transition out. If you recruit well, and win with those players on campus, it is almost a foregone conclusion that those same players will be terrorizing opponents for years to come.

This explains the gaps in South Carolina’s recruiting plan, where they normally follow up a big recruiting year, with one that is lighter. No recruit, especially a top ranked recruits wants to ride the bench, and every 2 years or so is enough time to reload and prep for another run. And the transfer portal really hasn’t affected the Gamecocks negatively, because right now they are the best of the best. Anywhere that their players could choose to go would be a step down from playing for Coach Staley.

The Bottom Line

Women’s college basketball has for a long time been dominated by a small number of teams that simply outclass and overmatch their opponents. South Carolina is no exception to this rule. But the last few years have been a stroke of recruiting brilliance, where they have amassed the best collection of women’s college basketball players in the game today. With ten five star recruits on their roster actively, they have a luxury that no team since UConn almost a decade ago has ever known. And after losing to UConn like everyone else for the better part of the past decade, they got tired of watching the throne. And if this year’s performance is any indication, the Gamecocks are ready to take it by force. We will see if anyone else can challenge them.

KNOW THE GAME. WIN THE GAME.

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