How to watch as Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks try to tie program record with 22nd win in a row
Who: No. 1 South Carolina (27-1, 14-0 SEC) at Florida (15-12, 6-8 SEC)
When: 6 p.m. Thursday
Where: Stephen C. O’Connell Center, Gainesville, Florida
Watch: Streaming online on SEC Network Plus via WatchESPN
Listen: 1320 AM/107.5 FM in Columbia area
South Carolina’s projected lineup: G Tyasha Harris, G Zia Cooke, G Brea Beal, F Mikiah Herbert Harrigan, F/C Aliyah Boston
South Carolina’s last game: 67-58 win over then-No. 14 Kentucky
Florida’s projected lineup: G Kiara Smith, G Kristina Moore, G Lavender Briggs, G Nina Rickards, F Zada Williams
Florida’s last game: 83-80 win over then-No. 22 Arkansas
Last meeting: South Carolina won, 96-77, at Florida last year
Warren Nolan’s R1 projection: South Carolina 80, LSU 54
What to watch for
16-0
South Carolina has secured almost everything it can in the regular season — an undisputed SEC championship and No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. The only thing left for the Gamecocks is a perfect conference record, something they’ve done once before in 2015-16 and only three league teams have managed in the last decade.
“At this point, we’re here, I think our team wants to win out, wants to be undefeated, and in order for us to do that, we gotta show up and play the way we’ve been playing all season long,” coach Dawn Staley said.
“That’s always been the goal (to go 16-0), but we just approach every game the same and we take it game by game,” senior forward Mikiah Herbert Harrigan added.
And of course, winning would continue to keep South Carolina in line for the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament with a regional in Greenville so the Gamecocks don’t have to travel out of state to advance to the Final Four.
“We really haven’t talked about No. 1 seed,” Staley said. “We just want to win out in our league. I think we’ve done more than enough to get a No. 1 seed. Whether that’s a No. 1 overall, which I think we still have done, we gotta keep writing our narrative, which is, just win, and then everything will take care of itself.”
22 wins in a row
Defeating Florida would mark South Carolina’s 22nd win in a row, extending the nation’s longest active win streak and tying the program record that was established in 2014-15 and matched in 2015-16.
In both of those previous years, the streak was snapped once USC faced UConn. Now, however, Carolina has finally defeated the Huskies and is likely to be favored in every game moving forward until the Final Four or so.
But Staley said she didn’t even realize that the Gamecocks were on the verge of matching the program record. When informed Wednesday, she kept it in perspective.
“It means a lot in that we want to win. We want to win and win out, and that’s with everything. And hopefully we can blow that record in the hole big time with the team that we have,” Staley said.
Potential SEC tournament preview
With an upset of Arkansas this past weekend, Florida moved into a three-way tie for eighth place in the SEC standings with Alabama and Georgia. If Florida can find a way to win its season finale against Georgia, it will likely earn an eighth or ninth seed in the conference tournament and be one of South Carolina’s potential quarterfinal opponents.
The Gators are led by the SEC’s second highest-scoring freshman, guard Lavender Briggs, who averages 14.8 points per game. At 6-foot-1, Briggs has enough size to be a matchup problem, especially as UF has utilized a four-guard lineup as of late. Look for freshman guard Brea Beal or senior forward Mikiah Herbert Harrigan to be tasked with holding her in check.
Florida’s also one of the most disciplined teams in the country, ranking 25th in the NCAA and third in the SEC in foul rate, according to Her Hoop Stats. However, despite their 15-12 record, the Gators are actually being outscored and outshot from the field by opponents on the season.
This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 5:32 PM with the headline "How to watch as Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks try to tie program record with 22nd win in a row."
