Though it enters Sunday’s NCAA Tournament championship game against UConn as an underdog, South Carolina has been the standard in women’s college basketball over the past several years, the leader that the other programs across the Division I level often find themselves chasing.
The Gamecocks have earned a No. 1 seed in each of the past five NCAA Tournaments. They’re appearing in their fifth-consecutive Final Four. They’ve won two of the past three national championships, with a third in four years on Sunday potentially solidifying them as the sport’s first dynasty since, fittingly, the UConn program they’re facing off against at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.
South Carolina has gotten to that exalted place through talented, carefully constructed rosters that have a deft hand in coach Dawn Staley guiding them.
This year’s group of Gamecocks is no exception, though it notably doesn’t feature a single player who made the Associated Press All-American first, second or third teams. Despite losing key contributors like Kamilla Cardoso from last season’s national championship team, South Carolina has racked up a 34-4 record and another Final Four berth behind several players who have stepped up and assumed larger roles, from dynamic guard MiLaysia Fulwiley to forward Chloe Kitts to freshman forward Joyce Edwards, who wasn’t even on the team last season.