South Carolina women’s basketball: First week feelings

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South Carolina is finishing up its first official week of practice, but the Gamecocks have been on campus and working out for the better part of the summer. As a team coming off an undefeated championship season and returning all but one player, you would think the coaches have a pretty clear idea of the team they have.

You would be wrong. And Dawn Staley blames the Highlighters, the nickname for the male practice players, for the uncertainty.

“Here’s the thing, we don’t know how good we are because our Highlighters are so good,” Staley said earlier this week. “They’re much quicker than us. They run us out the gym at times. So we’re really having a hard time figuring out how good we are, much like we were last year. Until we play Memphis, I don’t know. I don’t feel good right now.”

The coaches have discussed changing how the Highlighters practice. Assistant coach Winston Gandy coaches the Highlighters, and could instruct his charges to go easier. But Staley is hesitant to go that route.

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“Do we need to change things according to what’s happening out there against the Highlighters? Do we just let it go?” she said. “We know what’s good basketball. We do have to clean up some things, but it’s hard to gauge.”

She wants to see a change in how the players respond to the Highlighters.

“I just want us to play better. I want us to make better decisions,” Staley said. “I want us to probably get mad that they’re getting beat. Get mad at the Highlighters and take that up to another level. We’re not going to change the way the Highlighters are playing, but it will help us. So we have to adjust to them. We have to figure out how we can consistently beat them. We beat them every so often, but not enough to make us feel real good about what we’re doing. That’s not a bad thing.”

There are still almost three weeks until the exhibition against Memphis, and almost six weeks until the regular season opener against Michigan. That’s plenty of time to get ticked off.

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