South Carolina women’s basketball: The Gamecocks’ search for leadership

Before the UConn game, the Huskies’ radio announcer Bob Joyce interviewed Brad Muller, the voice of the Gamecocks. He asked Muller who the Gamecocks’ leaders are. Muller didn’t have an answer.

On Wednesday ahead of media availability, we discussed which player to request. “We need one of the team leaders,” someone said. Nobody knew who that was.

It’s an ongoing question. Who are this team’s leaders? Even Dawn Staley hasn’t had an answer.

“Our most experienced players have to be better,” she said on Wednesday.

Leadership wasn’t a problem last season. South Carolina only lost one player from that team, Kamilla Cardoso, and she wasn’t much of a vocal leader. So why has it become a problem this season?

Perhaps it wasn’t an issue last season because the Gamecocks never really got pressed. They never had to rally back from a loss. There is also a personality aspect.

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From the outside, we tend to look at leadership in terms of which player gives rah-rah speeches to fire up the team. What the Gamecocks may have lacked in that kind of leadership they made up with a group of incredibly competitive and talented players who never lost focus on the goal of winning.

They rallied around every obstacle: the loss to Iowa in the previous season’s Final Four, Raven Johnson’s Revenge Tour, not being ranked no. 1, Cardoso’s suspension, and so on.

They didn’t forget how to compete (except for the UConn game). But it’s a little harder to rally when you are the defending champs. The chip on everyone’s shoulder is a little smaller and less motivating.

Maybe getting embarrassed by UConn becomes this season’s rallying point. It wasn’t just a loss, it was humiliating. For the first time this season, South Carolina isn’t the favorite to win the championship.

1.8 million viewers watched UConn blow out South Carolina, ESPN’s largest regular-season audience in 15 years. Maybe that chip on the Gamecocks’ shoulders is back.

We saw that kind of leadership on display against Arkansas, especially from MiLaysia Fulwiley. Fulwiley had 15 points, four rebounds, four assists, and a season’s worth of spectacular plays.

Fulwiley: I didn’t think about the last game. I just focused on this game.

Staley saw more to Fulwiley’s performance. The sophomore is normally soft-spoken, but she was more assertive last week.

“She was mad at the beginning,” Staley said. “And you know, you can be mad and hold it in, or you can be mad and just kind of voice your opinion about things. And she was one that voiced her opinion. And it’s good to hear it from a young player. It’s good to hear it from a competitor, like a competitor doesn’t like anything about something, what happened, not, not one thing you know. You know you can, you can draw some positives from it. But bottom line is, you know, competitors doesn’t like to be in that situation.”

Fulwiley is the type of player who, when she is taking good shots, has the competitive personality to force her teammates to rise to her level.

“She really does that in practice,” Edwards said. “But every time she does it it’s a shocker, no matter how many times she does it (in practice). It’s just mind-blowing because you don’t see that every day, You don’t see nobody doing that,”

Edwards is another fairly soft-spoken player. But she understands her own talent and has become a leader with her play.

Edwards had a team-high 18 points on Thursday, nine of which came during the decisive 16-0 third-quarter run.

“We knew we had to come in and execute and show the world who South Carolina is, remind the world who South Carolina is,” Edwards said. “That’s what we did.”

There were other players who adhered to that philosophy. Te-Hina Paopao had an off night, with just four points on 1-5 shooting, but during the decisive third quarter she made a pair of free throws, had a steal for a layup, and grabbed a rebound she turned into a layup by Edwards.

Staley also praised Raven Johnson, Choe Kitts, Sania Feagin, and Maryam Dauda for executing their roles. Sometimes that is leadership too – doing what the team needs.

That’s where Edwards and especially Fulwiley enter the equation. They may have flaws, but you can’t question their competitiveness, and competitiveness can drag everyone else along.

“She’s grown, she really is growing,” Staley said. “She’s learning. She’s growing. She’s more active in practice. She’s using her voice in practice. So it’s always a good thing when a young player starts to utilize their voice and they understand their power.”

Do I believe all of this?

Maybe. I have certainly talked myself into it.

But more importantly, I’ve seen enough of these Gamecocks to know never to count them out.

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