Gamecocks Display Two-Way Ability In SEC Tournament

South Carolina's Women's Basketball team proved in the SEC Women's Basketball Tournament that their offense is now on the same level as their defense.

If you asked Women's College Basketball fans how they would describe South Carolina's Women's Basketball team, there's a litany of words and phrases that would be thrown out; overpowering, physical, long, along with many others. Typically, when these words or phrases are used to describe Dawn Staley's squad, they're usually associated with the Gamecocks' defensive play, but while South Carolina's bread and butter has certainly been their play without the basketball, their play on the offensive end has somehow lead to them raising their standard even higher.

In Greenville this past weekend, the Gamecocks averaged 82.3 points in the three matchups they played, shooting 51.35 percent as a team in the process. For comparisons sake, when South Carolina played in the SEC Women's Basketball tournament last year, against two of the same opponents they faced this season nonetheless, the Gamecocks averaged 66.3 points per game over the course of their three games, shooting a parsley 34.89 percent from the floor.

Even for a program that's been ranked No. 1 in the country for the past 37 weeks and is currently looking to win it's second straight national championship, this improvement is quite remarkable and should convey to everyone why this team is even better than the one that took the floor just one season ago. Yes, 60 percent of the roster, including four out of the five starters, returned, and usually having that kind of continuity combined with an abundance of experience leads to perceivable progression from a team, but continuity alone doesn't lead to these kinds of leaps in overall production and efficiency.

The light has come on for multiple players on the roster this season, as evidenced by the mental growth of Zia Cooke, the markedly improved shooting of defensive stalwart Brea Beal, Kamilla Cardoso's increased maneuverability around the rim and the better shot selection from Laeticia Amihere. The collective transformation of this group of players has both simultaneously taken part of the load off of Aliyah Boston and also made everyone much more willing to subscribe to the idea of team basketball, with players not looking to always make a play by themselves and being willing to pass up a good shot for a great shot.

It's this metamorphosis that has lead to the Gamecocks putting up an undefeated record at this point in the season, winning two more SEC titles in the process, and could be the reason why South Carolina runs the table in March.

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