Well … this hasn’t gone to plan for the defending national champs to open the game.
The Gamecocks find themselves down 12-4 to Texas with just under five minutes to play in the first quarter.
South Carolina has been sloppy out of the gates, turning it over four times and shooting a measley 25% from the field.
Longhorns forward Madison Booker is leading the way with six points.
Score: Texas 12, South Carolina 4
And just like that, the women’s Final Four is a go at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.
The first of two matchups on the docket Friday sees the reigning national champions and No. 1 seed South Carolina face fellow No. 1 seed Texas.
The SEC rivals are playing each other for the fourth time this season.
The Gamecocks are looking to become the first team to win consecutive titles since UConn won four straight from 2013-2016.
In the face of a potential uphill battle against South Carolina, Texas head coach Vic Schaefer said his priority is making sure his players come away from this year’s tournament with no regrets.
“For my kids, I want them to enjoy this. You guys don’t know this, every time they walk in a room somewhere, there’s something there waiting for them,” the Texas head coach told reporters on Thursday. “It’s a box. It’s a pair of shoes. It’s warm-ups. It’s a bag. They can’t wait to leave here go back to the hotel because they think there’s going to be something there for them.
“They need to enjoy this. It’s hard to get here, and yet it is a business trip. They’re good enough. I want them to know that. And for me, there’s so much joy seeing their face, seeing them happy because I know how hard they work. Our kids, they work hard. They embrace toughness. They know we talk about it all the time, and I’m always talking about it.
“It’s one thing to talk it. It’s another thing to walk it. And they don’t like to be told they’ve been punked. They take great pride in not getting punked. When I tell them they’ve gotten punked, they do not like it. So they work hard. So you want them to enjoy it.”
A national title would be Dawn Staley’s fourth since joining South Carolina, having already lifted the trophy in 2017, 2022 and 2024.
The Basketball Hall of Fame player-turned-coach has been able to maintain South Carolina’s success on the court despite inevitably losing players to the WNBA, and she explained that building trust between her and her squad is the most important aspect in remaining a winning team.
“You have to condition young people to handle real communication. Because if it just happens once, they’re not going to get it,” the 54-year-old said. “If it happens once and then another, a month later, they really aren’t connecting the two.
“So you have to address everything that’s happening in front of them in real time. And then they’ll get used to it. They may not like what you’re saying, they may like what you’re saying at times. That’s what builds trust. It’s not: ‘Oh, I’m the head coach, listen to me.’ That’s old parenting. It’s the new-age parenting that’s out here that kids have a say. They want to be listened to. They have something to offer you. And that is how they’re thinking, how they feel and how they want to move and how they want to operate.”
Although Texas’ Final Four game against South Carolina will take place far away from Austin, a group of students will be attendance thanks to two of the teams’ star players and the head coach.
The Longhorns’ Rori Harmon and Madison Booker devised a plan to organize a bus to transport fans across country to cheer their team on.
And with a little bit of help from head coach Vic Schaefer and the school, 25 lucky students will be in Tampa, Florida.
“Me and Madison decided to put our money together to pay for these students’ way to come support us,” Harmon told reporters. “I think that just shows we’ll do anything to help our students get here and for them to cheer us on. I’m just super glad we have some students coming … I think that’s cool.”
The plan to organize the 17-hour bus journey for the students was “ramrodded” by Harmon and Booker, who did most of the logistical planning, according to Schaefer.
“Bought the tickets. Got them some hotel rooms,” Schaefer told reporters. “So we’re excited that we’re going to be able to have some University of Texas students be able to come to the Final Four and enjoy cheering on their team.”
The Texas Longhorns are in their fourth Final Four and first since the 2002-03 season.
Texas’ offense has been a key reason for their run throughout this year’s tournament, led by forward Madison Booker who’s averaging 16.5 points per game on 50% shooting from the field.
And although Vic Schaefer’s team will come in on a wave of positivity, the Longhorns face a stiff test against South Carolina as they look to win their second national championship.
The teams split their two SEC regular season meetings, but Texas lost its two games to the Gamecocks by a combined 36 points, including a 64-45 hammering in the SEC championship game. Both of those loses came in the state of South Carolina – in Columbia and Greenville.
The first Final Four matchup sees last year’s champion seeking to continue the defense of its title.
The South Carolina Gamecocks have become the team to beat in women’s college basketball in recent years, with head coach Dawn Staley building the team into a perennial winner.
The Gamecocks are aiming to cement their dynasty by winning their third title in four years, thereby becoming the fourth team to win back-to-back national titles, joining Tennessee, Southern California and UConn.
Many of the team’s former star players now ply their trade in the WNBA – such as A’ja Wilson, Aliyah Boston and Kamilla Cardoso – and the current Gamecock squad has been taking advantage of the ties with those talented alums.
“Relationships are important no matter where you go in life. To be able to talk to alumni and former Gamecocks, it helps our program a lot because they’ve been through it,” guard Te-Hina Paopao told reporters on Thursday.
“They speak life into us. And (Markeshia Grant) helped us during the season with team bonding and just bringing us closer together and just having that involvement with everyone on the team. And it’s helped us greatly and we learn from it. And we’ve continued to use those team-bonding moments to help us in the long run and experience like this.”
It’s finally time for the Final Four! Here’s the schedule for tonight’s action:
- No. 1 Texas vs. No. 1 South Carolina (7 p.m. ET on ESPN)
- No. 1 UCLA vs. No. 2 UConn (9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN)
