South Carolina basketball fans have been (beyond) spoiled by the success Dawn Staley has brought to the Gamecock program over the past decade.
South Carolina has won 7 SEC regular season championships, 8 SEC Tournament championships, and lost just 37 total games over the last 10 seasons. The Gamecocks won two national championships during that time frame and were the heavy favorites to win another when the 2019-2020 season was canceled due to Covid-19.
On Sunday, Coach Staley and her team clinched their 4th-straight berth in the Final Four, with a win in the Elite Eight over the Oregon State Beavers. There, they will take on the NC State Wolfpack and former Gamecock Saniya Rivers with a spot in the national title game on the line.
On Monday, several media outlets began reporting that the tip-off time for Friday's Final Four game had been decided, but it wasn't until Tuesday that the NCAA officially revealed that the Gamecocks and Wolfpack would begin their national semifinal game at 7:00 PM EST. The game will be broadcast on both ESPN and ESPN+ and will be streamed on the ESPN app.
For the second game in a row, Ryan Ruocco, Rebecca Lobo, and Holly Rowe will be the broadcasting crew on the call for the Gamecocks as ESPN's top women's basketball crew will handle all three games of the Final Four in Cleveland (both semifinal contests and the national championship).
South Carolina basketball is just two games away from history. Only four programs (UConn, 6x; Tennessee; Texas; Baylor) ever have gone undefeated in a women's college basketball season, and only four programs (UConn, 11; Tennessee, 8; Baylor, 3; Stanford, 3) have won three national championships.
Oddly enough, all of those teams won their titles with the same coaches at the helm as Geno Auriemma won all 11 for UConn, Pat Summitt won all 8 for Tennessee, Kim Mulkey, won all 3 for Baylor, and Tara VanDerveer won all 3 for Stanford. Mulkey added a 4th ring with LSU last season, so a third title for Staley would move her into a tie with VanDerveer in 4th-place all-time.