The post Dawn Staley reshaping South Carolina’s identity with new-look lineup appeared first on ClutchPoints.
The South Carolina women’s basketball team looks very different this season than in past years after only returning one starting player from last year’s team. With multiple players entering the WNBA and one notable transfer departure, head coach Dawn Staley has had to return to the drawing board to reform her team’s identity from the ground up.
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The first four games of the 2025 NCAA season have worked out in the Gamecocks’ favor so far, with the latest 69-52 win coming over then-No. 8 USC. The first battle for the “Real SC” title was one of the first chances Staley got to test out her revamped roster, pivoting away from a lineup led by bigs to one run by smaller guards.
“As coaches, we are striving for those perfect moments and have them play [those] for longer stretches of the game,” Staley said after South Carolina’s practice on Friday. “Know that these are some of the things we want to work toward. This is what we want things to look like, and we’ll point that out.”
“When you are able to put those instances together for longer stretches, then you go into the game knowing that you’re going to get those things early on,” Staley added.
A major contributor to Staley’s new scheme so far is transfer Madina Okot, who finished the game against USC with 15 rebounds. Okot’s dominance on the boards helped the Gamecocks outrebound the Trojans 56-32.
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“I’m going to give a lot of credit to Madina,” Staley said. “She was where she needed to be, and just from a confidence standpoint, knowing that we need her and knowing that she can execute a game plan, she is part of us finding our identity.”
Staley will get another chance to establish South Carolina’s new identity on Wednesday versus Winthrop.
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