While the teams underneath them have bounced in and out of the top-five rankings, South Carolina has remained the No. 1 team all year.
The last time the Gamecocks lost a contest was back in 2022 during the SEC tournament against Kentucky, who had Rhyne Howard, the No. 1 overall in the 2022 WNBA draft. South Carolina ended up winning the national championship but hasn't come up short in a contest since then.
South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley was asked about the team's mentality as an undefeated squad compared to coming off a loss heading into March Madness last season.
“I just talked to our players about this today,” Staley said Wednesday. “We don’t need a loss to make a push. Last year did we need it? Maybe. I don’t know. But it happened. And it was a push that helped us.”
South Carolina has had multiple nail biters this season, the most recent one coming against unranked Ole Miss. However, Staley iterated her team is focused on what is important: being prepared regardless of what the team or their opponent's records might be.
“They’re not coming into practice thinking, ‘Oh, we’re undefeated,'” Staley said of her team. “It’s not something in the forefront of their minds. Even when we played as close as we did in the overtime game at Ole Miss, they never flinched. They didn’t think about it. They just went into the mode of, ‘We’ve just got to do whatever it takes to win, however many minutes that is.’”
After capturing the SEC regular season crown, the team will look to avenge its loss in the SEC conference tournament this season.
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