WBB coverage delivered straight to your inbox<\/a>!<\/p>\n4. Welcome to the SEC grind<\/p>\n
Beginning with the 2014 regular season championship, South Carolina has claimed either the SEC regular season or tournament title every year but 2019. Eight times it was a sweep.<\/p>\n
Despite that dominance, it has rarely been easy. It is two games a week for the next two months, with hardly any gimmes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no hiding from it,\u201d Staley said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to take it straight on. It isn\u2019t for the faint of heart; it is for programs that want to win national championships. If you play in the SEC, it affords you to compete for national championships.\u201d<\/p>\n
Staley said that the Gamecocks are excited to get conference play started, especially Raven Johnson.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur conference, it\u2019s the best,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cEvery night you\u2019ve got to bring your all and it\u2019s a good game every night.\u201d<\/p>\n
5. Scouting the Crimson Tide<\/p>\n
Alabama had to replace its top three scorers from last season, with Sarah Ashlee Barker and Aaliyah Nye off to the WNBA, but the Tide have barely missed a step.<\/p>\n
Jessica Timmons missed all of last season recovering from a knee injury, but she has returned to average 15.5 points and shoot 44.4% from three. Essence Cody seems to have made the transition from being a supporting player to a team leader, averaging 15.4 points and 5.8 rebounds.<\/p>\n
Despite the different faces, Staley said that not much has changed in the challenges Alabama presents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they have silent intangibles,\u201d she said. \u201cThey play like an SEC team, which is gritty, which is hard-nosed. They find a way to decrease your momentum throughout the 40 minutes. We\u2019ve had success, but it\u2019s taken a really long time for us to create some separation. And we\u2019re going to this game thinking the same thing. Like, it\u2019s been hard. So, hopefully, we can use this place (Colonial Life Arena) as a home-court advantage like we have in the past and get our first SEC win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alabama plays four out and shoots a lot of threes. It\u2019s the same philosophy Kristy Curry has employed for several years, and Alabama has enjoyed the most successful stretch in program history as a result.<\/p>\n
As expected, Alabama\u2019s weakness is guarding the paint against big posts like Madina Okot. Cody is 6-4, but she isn\u2019t a typical low-post player. Sophomore forward Naomi Jones, who started while Cody was injured, is a little more of a traditional inside presence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other than Cody and Jones, Alabama doesn\u2019t play any other forwards significant minutes. They will have to guard Okot and Joyce Edwards without fouling, or it could be a long afternoon for Alabama.<\/p>\n
South Carolina has beaten Alabama 23 straight times, and Staley has never lost to Alabama.<\/p>\n
The Ws<\/p>\n
Who: #3 South Carolina (13-1) vs Alabama (14-0)
When: 2:00 ET, Thursday, January 1
Where: Colonial Life Arena, Columbia, SC
Watch: SEC Network+<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Carolina opens its SEC title defense by hosting Alabama on New Year\u2019s Day. Here are five things…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,465],"class_list":{"0":"post-510711","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-womens-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115822485174473231","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}