Maybe Loss Was the Best Thing for These Gamecock Women

Although you probably wouldn’t of thought it in the middle of the game against Connecticut maybe loss was the best thing for these Gamecock women. Just less than a week ago the Gamecocks were 22-0 and heading to play the number two team in the nation. Fans everywhere were so excited about the possibility of the cementing their spot as number one. However that obviously didn’t happen in a 25 point loss to the Huskies. In fact there were moments during that game which certainly created a lot of doubt that these women were as good as everyone had hoped they were. But this is why losing that game may turn out to be the best thing.

I’m sure you’ve heard something like this before, whether it’s getting a loss out-of-the-way or a humbling experience that drives them to improve. Most people have heard those examples before, but regardless losing still sucks, so it’s hard to see the positive in it. This loss is the best thing for this team because of who they are and where they were when it happened. This is a very young team with its leading scorer a true freshman and another leader was just last years SEC freshman of the year. In fact this is a team with five freshmen and only three seniors. This is a team that didn’t set a goal for being number one during the season but for the end of the season. And this is a Dawn Staley team, a team that is pushed hard and expected to excel at the basic fundamentals. So the fact that this team was 22-0 and was number one for much of the season is already saying a lot about this young team.

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This loss show them things that they need to work on that they could’ve never learned any other way. There’s there’s almost nothing that could be more valuable at this point in their journey together did not only feeling that letdown but realizing how hard they need to work to continue to get to that level. Since that loss, the Lady Gamecocks have beaten SEC foes LSU and Vanderbilt by 24 and 30 points respectively, moving their record to 24-1. Their next game is Thursday night in Arkansas, another tough SEC opponent.

There’s still a lot of games ahead of them with four regular-season games left, then the SEC tournament and then the NCAA tournament. Some of those will be very big games against very good teams as well. There’s no doubt that if they have another opportunity to play Connecticut that they will be much more prepared to face them and have a much better chance at beating them. If that day comes that means it’s most likely the championship game and their shot to finish number one at the end of the season which was their original goal to begin with. And if that happens they and everyone else can look back at that loss and know how much that helped them to reach that goal.

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