PHOENIX — As a player or a coach, you don’t get to this point in the season, one game away from a national title, without pressure. At various points during a long season, you’ve withstood it, both mentally and physically. You’ve acknowledged it and you’ve denied it. Sometimes the pressure is rooted in the pain of the past; other times, it’s in the fear of the future. You learn to live with it because it’s always there.
It was certainly present in Phoenix on Friday for all four teams that took the floor at Mortgage Matchup Center in the Final Four.
On a night when offense was hard to come by, grit and heart were not. On a night when composure mattered, UCLA and South Carolina found it and rode it to a chance at a national title.
UCLA knew about the pressure, with six senior anchors and carrying the sting of a blowout loss in last year’s national semifinals. The Bruins embraced it, hanging on when a double-digit lead shrunk to one possession with less than 20 seconds to go in a game they’d led nearly from start to finish. Star center Lauren Betts came up with a huge block and guard Kiki Rice knocked down four critical free throws to close out a 51-44 win over Texas and secure the program’s first trip to the NCAA title game.
South Carolina was underregarded in this field of four powerhouses because so many people thought this was Connecticut’s title to lose. Turns out it might be the Gamecocks’, who will make their third straight appearance in the NCAA title game after defeating previously unbeaten UConn, the No. 1 overall seed, 62-48.
“You really don’t get these opportunities very often. You don’t. So you got to meet the moment,” South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley told reporters after her team outscored the Huskies 38-22 in the second half. “You see [our] players, [and] they just have a different look. When they have it, it gives you confidence to know that they’re ready.
“You know some players that you’ve got question marks about whether they’re ready to meet the moment. I didn’t have any of that with Ta’Niya [Latson]. Didn’t have any of that with Raven [Johnson]. Joyce [Edwards], none of that.”
A heated moment between Staley and UConn head coach Geno Auriemma would not diminish what South Carolina accomplished against a Huskies squad that included consensus national player of the year Sarah Strong and first-team All-American Azzi Fudd.
On this day, it was the Huskies stars who seemed to be struggling under the pressure.
For Connecticut, taking an unbeaten team into the Final Four might have been too much perfection for a stage where you have to play through imperfect moments. And the Huskies didn’t handle it well enough to win.
Fudd’s 3-for-15 shooting was not a reflection on her stellar career or the resilience she has shown in coming back from injury to live up to the expectations that she would be one of the best players in the country. But Fudd has a lot on her plate, being a nationally recognizable face backed by lucrative name, image and likeness deals and trying to carry a team to a second straight national title in her final season. (Her face even hovers on a Nike digital billboard over the block in front of Mortgage Matchup Center.)
“I feel like I let the team down today,” Fudd told reporters.
She added, “Obviously, this isn’t how I wanted my career at UConn to end. These five years, I have so much to be grateful for. … This game, like I said, not how we wanted it to end. But it doesn’t define us.”
Strong had 12 points and 12 rebounds in a game where she shot 4-for-16 from the floor and went more than 30 minutes without a field goal. It was less than what her team needed against a physical, balanced South Carolina team. That’s a lot of weight on a barely 20-year-old.
And then there’s Auriemma. The Huskies coach blistered the officiating and Staley in a startling in-game interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe to open the fourth quarter. He accused Staley of saying inappropriate things to the officials and vented about South Carolina’s physicality and the disparity in foul calls.
Then, with less than a second on the clock, Auriemma barked at Staley during their postgame handshake, and Staley responded in kind. The two giants of the game needed to be separated by their coaching staffs.
Auriemma would double down in his postgame press conference, indicating his unhappiness that Staley did not shake his hand at half court before the game.
“I said what I said. And obviously she didn’t like it. I just told the truth,” Auriemma said.
That exchange threatened to overshadow an impressive South Carolina win and his own team’s disappointment in a tough loss. To put it simply, it wasn’t a good look for college basketball’s winningest coach. How much Friday’s exchange prompts Auriemma’s reflection will be entirely up to him.
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Meanwhile, Staley’s team plays on for a shot at a fourth national championship since 2017.
“I’m haunted by 2023,” Staley said, referring to when Iowa upset the Gamecocks in the national semifinals in star Aliyah Boston’s senior season. “I’m haunted by that particular Final Four because of the players that we had and the season that we were having. It got upended.
“For me, if we ever get the opportunity to be in that position again, which we were today, we’re going to lay it on the line, OK? We’re going to lay it on the line, figure out ways in which to win the game. I thought our kids locked into that.”
When UCLA looked up to see its 13-point lead against Texas cut to 3 with 1:02 to go, the Bruins leaned not into their experience, but into their preparation.
“We do so much mental work. I don’t think a lot of people realize it,” Betts told reporters afterward. “We’re constantly trying to improve our mental space and our mental toughness. I think it shows our maturity. I know I can count on anybody on this team, regardless of the score. We are going to show up and compete.”
Related reading: How Lauren Betts, irresistible force, wouldn’t let UCLA lose
Texas junior Madison Booker, one of the best players in the country, had an uncharacteristic night, shooting 3-for-23 from the floor. At one point, she missed 18 straight shots. Texas was held to a season-low 6 points in the first quarter and fought to generate any offensive flow for most of the game.
Senior guard Rori Harmon spoke about advice she once got from Hall of Fame broadcaster Debbie Antonelli.
“She told me that it’s not pressure, it’s opportunity,” Harmon told reporters. “Obviously after this loss, you’re pretty upset and hurt and really angry. I had my moment after the game. I was really mad. I think that’s valid. We’re very human. We had a whole season and we fought really hard and it was really aggressive. We had a lot of adversity.
“But when [head coach Vic Schaefer] listed the stats about the game, all we had to do was make a shot. We had really good looks. Unfortunately it just wasn’t our day. I think the team looks at me and looks at how I’m able to respond and keep my composure. I try my best.”
It was a night where the stakes felt as high as they were. Pressure showed up and made itself known. But it always does.
And those who withstood it best on Friday will get another chance to define themselves on Sunday.
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