Dawn Staley shares Gamecocks’ first Paris impressions ahead of opener vs. Notre Dame

——Editor’s note: The State reporter Payton Titus is on site in Paris to bring our readers cover of the Gamecocks’ trip and season-opening game.——

The South Carolina women’s basketball team is in Paris for its historic season opener Monday against Notre Dame.

In the last 24 hours, the Gamecocks have visited the Eiffel Tower for lunch with the city’s mayor. They’ve gone to the Louvre Museum and seen Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Mona Lisa painting up close.

And they’ve managed to fit some basketball practice at Halle Georges Carpentier Arena in there, too.

“Great energy. Great practice. Great execution,” coach Dawn Staley told reporters Friday. “We’ve got two more of those, and probably got a couple more sights we gotta see. I think we’ve scheduled it out pretty nicely where they get the experience. Something new and different. Another country, and landmarks. Have conversations that they probably would’ve never had if they didn’t come to Paris.”

While Staley played international basketball in France during the 1990s, Friday marked her first visit to the Louvre Museum. She expected the Mona Lisa to be so small that she’d need her glasses to see it — all based on warnings from people she knew who had visited the museum.

But she found the famous painting to be a decent size and ended up taking pictures to document the moment, veering from her tour guide’s path to get the right photographic angles.

Food has been the aspect of French culture Staley’s appreciated the most, she said. All the players seem really into the trip so far, taking photos and filming TikToks whenever they get the chance, but Staley specifically noted that senior Kamilla Cardoso has taken a higher volume of selfies while sightseeing.

But this is also a business trip. The Gamecocks play their first game of the 2023-24 season in just a couple days inside the Halle Georges Carpentier Arena. The key to balancing international enrichment and a keen basketball focus is the key to life as a student or professional athlete: compartmentalization.

“I liken it to being where your mind is,” Staley said. “If you are where your mind is, you’re going to enjoy life a lot better. If your mind is somewhere else, you should leave and go to where your mind is because it will benefit you.”

She was eager to see how the team would handle an on-site practice after all their traveling, but shared that everyone was “locked in and ready” during Friday’s session, providing a nice foundation to build upon at Saturday and Sunday workouts. It also helps that director of basketball performance Molly Binetti and athletic trainer Craig Oates are there to assist the players’ bodies and minds.

Monday’s game is unique for one obvious reason: It’s the first NCAA regular season game played on Parisian soil. But the bond that this trip has created among the members of South Carolina’s team is unique, too. Staley can already see its on-court impact.

“When you spend time with each other off the floor, and you build the trust, and you build some laughter, and you experience new things together, it creates a bond that (Te-Hina) Paopao spoke about after practice today,” Staley said. “Which was pretty cool. You know, we can say it as coaches, but when the players actually say those things that are happening, it makes you feel good about this decision that you made to allow us to come over and experience this.”

While acknowledging that there’s still a lot of trip left between now and Monday night, she said Paris has been an amazing experience so far. There are no offers for another international game next year just yet.

But if an opportunity should arise: “Would I do it again? Yes.”

South Carolina women’s basketball 2023-24 season opener

Who: No. 6 South Carolina vs. No. 10 Notre Dame

When: Monday, 1 p.m. EST

Where: Halle Georges Carpentier Arena in Paris, France

Watch/Stream: ESPN/ESPN.com