South Carolina Basketball: 6 thumbs up from a historic national championship win

South Carolina Basketball vs. Iowa Hawkeyes
Thumbs Up 6: Overcoming

Against Iowa, South Carolina overcame a lot of obstacles to win.

The first and most obvious was the slow start. Iowa was up 20-9 in less than 5 minutes. Playing against the highest-scoring offense in the country and the NCAA's all-time leading scorer, a big deficit can feel insurmountable. The Gamecocks didn't quit.

The second was the officiating. For whatever reason (insert wild NCAA-sanctioned, referee-centered conspiracy theories here), the whistles ridiculously favored Iowa in the early goings. It was so apparent that many unaffiliated basketball voices made a point to mention on social media how one-sided things were. Foul trouble and extra foul shot opportunities for the Hawkeyes were direct results. The Gamecocks didn't quit.

The third was last year's loss. South Carolina basketball fell last year and lost the program's 2nd-greatest player ever (Aliyah Boston) and the other four starters. Getting to the National Championship again felt like a long shot, and beating the same Iowa team and Caitlin Clark after losing last year? That would have been viewed as an impossibility by many so-called analysts. The Gamecocks didn't quit.

The fourth was their pursuit of history. Like last year's team, this year's group was pursuing an undefeated season and immortality in women's college basketball history. Going for history is never easy, and only 9 of the more than 10,000 teams in the 40+ years of the sport have gone undefeated. Some coaches and players hate the pressure of making history so much that they argue it is best for the team to lose a game along the way. Carolina faced that same pressure. The Gamecocks didn't quit.

In the face of every obstacle they faced this season and against Iowa in the National Championship Game, the South Carolina Gamecocks overcame them all and are the 2023-2024 undefeated National Champions.