NEW YORK — It’s been five years since a team other than UConn started the season as defending champions. Coach Dawn Staley and her South Carolina Gamecocks have that honor this year.
After a thrilling Final Four that ended with the Gamecocks winning their first national championship, women’s college basketball is ready to get started Friday.
South Carolina is among the teams looking to travel to Columbus, Ohio, for the Final Four in April. UConn, Stanford, Ohio State and Louisville will make the trip there this weekend to play a tipoff tournament at the site of the upcoming NCAA championships.
South Carolina returns only two starters, although one is star A’ja Wilson.
“I think when we first started practice, we had a certain level of confidence and swagger,” Staley said. “But that team that won last year and the team that we have this year are very different. I made sure they were aware of that very quickly.”
Mississippi State ended UConn’s 111-game winning streak on a last-second shot in overtime of the NCAA semifinals. With the longest winning streak in NCAA history behind them, the Huskies will aim for a fifth national championship in the last six seasons.
“I think what happened last season is exactly what needed to happen,” UConn Coach Geno Auriemma said. “Not because we need any extra motivation to win. I just think we need it to lift all the stuff we’ve been carrying around with us the last couple of years and just play free and clear and be like everybody else, and understand that losing is not the end of the world.”
The top-ranked Huskies return a talented group led by three preseason AP All-Americans. Auriemma has another group of talented newcomers as well.
Some things to watch this season:
MILESTONE WATCH
Three coaches have a shot at joining the 1,000-win club: Auriemma (991), North Carolina’s Sylvia Hatchell (990) and Rutgers’ C. Vivian Stringer (977). Only Pat Summitt and Tara VanDerveer have reached that mark in women’s basketball.
“I honestly had no idea I was that close, but that is incredible company to be a part of,” Auriemma said this summer. “The fact that there are three of us within reach of that mark just goes to show we’ve all been in the game for a while.”
TRANSFER EPIDEMIC
Once again, a plethora of players switched schools, including stellar freshman Destiny Slocumb, who left Maryland to head to Oregon State. Notre Dame added Jessica Shephard from Nebraska, who was surprisingly granted immediate eligibility last week.
South Carolina will try to get Te’a Cooper eligible at semester break. She sat out last season at Tennessee because of a knee injury, then switched to the Gamecocks this summer.
FRESH FACES
There are a bunch of talented newcomers, starting with Tennessee’s highly regarded freshmen group. The Lady Vols are led by Rennia Davis and Evina Westbrook.
“They are very talented young women and I think they came in here as highly touted freshmen,” Tennessee Coach Holly Warlick said. “Some think they have a lot of pressure, but they don’t see it as pressure.”
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