COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley told her team after its second-round March Madness win over Indiana on Sunday that it’s hard to make the Sweet 16 just twice in a row.
“She said that and we were like ‘Really? It’s hard to make it to the Sweet 16?’” junior guard Raven Johnson said.
Now that the Gamecocks have made it for an 11th consecutive time, it’s easy to see why they would think it’s easy.
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They are in the Birmingham Regional and face No. 4 Maryland on Friday. Even though they planned to take just one day off, the Gamecocks are so experienced with the march through March Madness that they know taking care of their mind and bodies is of the utmost importance.
“We’ve got to rest and recover,” senior guard Te-Hina Paopao said. “It’s going to be a long stretch for us, so we’ve just got to be prepared, be disciplined and get ready for our next game.”
Staley has taken her own approach to preparing for each round of March, prioritizing whatever she and the players feel they will get the most out of — whether that be film, conditioning or rest.
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“I think we did one drill (Saturday) where we just went up and down,” she said about the Gamecocks’ practice the day before Sunday’s game. “It was at the very beginning. It’s a conditioning drill we do every day before a game, and then everything was just half court.”
Before they headed to Birmingham, though, the Gamecocks’ players also still had to balance being student-athletes in one of the busiest months in sports.
“We’re really just focused on recovery and our classes,” senior center Sakima Walker said.
Andy Mathis and Anna Williams are students in the University of Georgia’s Sports Media Certificate program.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: South Carolina women’s basketball focused on recovery before Sweet 16
