Once a one-sided matchup, USC-UConn game now a powerful women’s basketball rivalry
The South Carolina women’s basketball team hosted UConn in 2020 in hopes of finally slaying college basketball’s ultimate dragon.
The Connecticut program stood 11 national championships tall, and the Gamecocks were just three years removed from their first title. USC thoroughly outplayed the Huskies that day for its first win in the series.
UConn head coach Geno Auriemma was asked afterward what went wrong. To him, it was more about what Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks did right.
“How about you write that somewhere: South Carolina played way better than Connecticut,” Auriemma told reporters that day. “That’s allowed to happen once in a while.”
The 13th installment of the series takes place at noon Sunday (Fox) when the No. 1 Gamecocks (22-0) will play the No. 5 Huskies inside the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut. This meeting serves as a rematch of the 2022 national championship in which the Gamecocks won 64-49. The teams have faced each other at least once a year since 2015.
Heading into Sunday, the all-time series favors UConn 9-3. South Carolina has caught fire in recent meetings, though, winning three of the past four.
This season, the Huskies have been ravaged by injuries but still have a 21-2 record. The team has utilized its depth all year to remain a top-five team.
“(Auriemma‘s) a genius,” ESPN analyst Debbie Antonelli told The State. “I mean, we don’t even need to go any further — that’s the greatest compliment. He’s a great teacher. And he’s a genius when it comes to putting together winning cultures and teams.”
The first time the teams met in 2007, a USC national championship wasn’t in the equation — especially not against the sport’s winningest team. All that’s changed.
Postseason fates have been on the line in recent years, regular-season rankings have been impacted and winning streaks have been altered from this annual duel. What began as a one-sided bout has turned into a power struggle.
‘Discipline and execution’
The distance between UConn’s campus in Storrs and Columbia is about 840 miles. Fifteen years ago, the gap between the USC and UConn women’s basketball programs felt even wider.
When Staley arrived at South Carolina in 2008, UConn had already won five national championships and was on its way to a sixth. The Huskies trounced the Gamecocks 77-48 in Columbia during Staley’s first season in the second all-time meeting between the two teams.
UConn won each of the first eight meetings by double-digits, with five of those games decided by 25 or more points.
Beating the Huskies seemed like an impossible task for years. Auriemma has led UConn to six undefeated seasons as a head coach, and he did so twice before Staley came to USC. The Huskies brought in star-studded teams every year, with players who would go on to be WNBA superstars and Naismith Hall of Famers.
“It’s a very balanced offensive attack,” Antonelli said. “They always have five players on the floor that can score. So when I look at UConn’s dominance, that’s what I think: discipline and execution. Five on the floor that can score and more passing and cutting than dribbling.”
Before USC became the thorn in UConn’s side, another SEC squad held a longstanding rivalry with Auriemma’s crew.
Tennessee, led by legendary coach Pat Summitt, was often the main challenger for the Huskies. The two schools faced off 22 times with Auriemma and Summitt as the head coaches, and UConn held a 13-9 record in those games.
That series ultimately stopped in 2007 because of a recruiting-related disagreement between Auriemma and Summitt, but later resumed in 2020.
‘Take it as a lesson’
South Carolina picked up some steam as a program in 2012, when it won 25 games and reached the NCAA tournament for the first time in the Staley era. The program’s relevance started on its upward trajectory at that point, and took off just a few years later.
The Gamecocks signed A’ja Wilson, a Columbia native and the No. 1 prospect in the country, in their 2014 recruiting class. Wilson was easily the biggest splash the program had made at that time, and the team won more than 30 games in three of her four seasons as a Gamecock.
“A’ja Wilson was a star,” Antonelli said. “Everything was centered around her. Her competitive spirit, her personality and her skill set. She was dominant.”
Beginning in 2015, the Gamecocks started playing the Huskies every year. Staley wanted the opportunity to face the most elite team in the college field as USC looked to bolster its own program.
Staley has made it a point to face some of the country’s best teams every year to gauge where the Gamecocks stand and prepare them for the NCAA tournament. UConn was the team they had yet to beat.
“You get a glimpse of who they are,” Staley told The State. “And you can game plan a little bit better. You can get your team used to their style of play. And it’s just helpful to just kind of continue to close the gap of, first, the deficits of losing to them.”
South Carolina drew a sold-out crowd to Colonial Life Arena in a February matchup against UConn in 2016. Both teams entered the game with undefeated records, and it was the second time they faced off as the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in The Associated Press poll. The first time was in 2015.
UConn won that game 66-54, but it marked the then-closest margin of defeat for USC in that series.
“I remember thinking we were going with it,” Staley said about the 2016 matchup. “And then reality set in. But I also remembered that we have to play them. We have to play them and we have to play them in this type of environment. Win, lose or draw, you take it as a lesson.”
Staley’s Gamecocks had three future WNBA players on the roster in the 2015-16 season. They went on to sweep the SEC regular season and won the conference tournament.
The Huskies went on to win their 11th and most recent national championship that season. South Carolina finished the regular season with just one loss, but was bounced in the Sweet 16.
The next season, USC won its first national championship when it beat Mississippi State in the title game. The Bulldogs defeated UConn in the Final Four that year in buzzer-beating fashion, ending the Huskies’ 111-game winning streak.
Staley and Wilson elevated South Carolina’s program to national prominence with that victory. USC was able to start establishing a championship pedigree that Tennessee, Notre Dame, Baylor and Stanford, among others, already had.
Still, South Carolina lacked what those schools had: a win against UConn.
‘Unleash all your weapons’
South Carolina lost to UConn in the 2018 Elite Eight in Wilson’s last college game.
After she and other Gamecock stars departed, Staley brought in another talented recruiting class in 2019. That group featured Aliyah Boston, Zia Cooke, Brea Beal, Laeticia Amihere and Olivia Thompson.
Boston, Cooke and Beal started every game their freshman season, alongside future WNBA players Tyasha Harris and Mikiah Herbert Harrigan.
UConn carried five future WNBA draft picks that season — Megan Walker, Crystal Dangerfield, Evina Westbrook, Christyn Williams and Olivia Nelson-Ododa.
Staley lost her first seven games to the Huskies, and the loss before her arrival placed USC at an 0-8 series record heading into the 2019-20 season.
But on one faithful Monday night, USC finally found a way to get in the win column.
Antonelli was the color commentator that game and recalled Boston taking — and making — the first 3-point shot of her career in the first quarter.
“I remember saying on the air, ‘That’s the first three she’s ever taken,’ ” Antonelli said. “I think Dawn has unleashed a secret weapon. … I don’t know if Dawn was saving it or not, but I think that’s kind of the stuff you got to have in your back pocket when you’re taking on a program the caliber of UConn. You’ve got to be ready to unleash all your weapons.”
South Carolina won that game 70-52, breaking through and taking down one of the most iconic programs in the history of college athletics.
“So it took four more years from 2016 to actually win, while you’re getting your head beat in,” Staley said. “And then it finally just hits. Once you’ve won, it doesn’t mean you’re just gonna continue to win.”
The home-and-home series continued beyond that, and the Huskies bested the Gamecocks in Connecticut the next season with an overtime win.
South Carolina picked up a convincing win against UConn in the Bahamas when they faced off in November 2021. Another regular-season matchup between the two teams for January 2022 was canceled so South Carolina could reschedule an SEC game.
The Gamecocks glided through the rest of the 2021-22 regular season, entering the NCAA tournament with a 29-2 record. The team won four of its first five games in the tournament by double-digits.
After routing the other opponents, it only had one last stop to make to reach its ultimate destination.
The 30-5 Huskies awaited USC in the national championship game. Auriemma had never lost at that stage in his previous appearances, dating to his first title in 1995.
This was Staley’s second time on that stage, but also her second time coaching against that UConn team with her 2022 squad.
South Carolina never trailed in the game. Three of its players scored 11 or more points, and only one of UConn’s players did the same. With that, Staley became the first coach in women’s college basketball to defeat UConn in the national championship game.
After the game, Staley was asked if South Carolina had become a dynasty at that point. She said she wouldn’t coach long enough to reach 11 titles, and would “probably fall short” of that number.
“Look at the tradition of what UConn and what they were able to do, they’re the standard,” Staley said after the game.
Dynasty or not, South Carolina today stands as one of the game’s powerhouses. It has been in three of the past five Final Fours and champions in two of the past five tournaments.
Staley taught herself through the UConn losses and helped the program learn from their dominance as well. The Gamecocks have seen the Huskies constantly for nearly a decade, and that gives them the ability to measure themselves.
“I know what they like to do. I really know UConn at this point,” Staley said. “You’re either gonna have a team that’s disciplined enough to, time and time again, combat that, or you’re not. If you don’t, then they’re gonna win every time.”
Seeding for the tournament could be impacted by the outcome of Sunday’s game, and the teams might even see each other again down the line.
UConn has been the stumbling block for many college basketball teams, and its constant clashes with USC gives it a Tennessee-like foe.
South Carolina hasn’t faced off with UConn as many times as the Lady Volunteers, nor has it won as frequently. But that battle holds weight all the same.
“I 100 percent believe it already is (at that level),” Antonelli said. “It doesn’t have the long history that that rivalry has, but it does have all the makings for one of the best rivalries in the game. It’s great that they both agree to play.”
South Carolina vs UConn WBB results
Dec. 17, 2007: UConn wins 97-39 (away)
Dec. 28, 2008: UConn wins 77-48 (home)
Feb. 9, 2015: UConn wins 87-62 (away)
Feb. 8, 2016: UConn wins 66-54 (home)
Feb. 13, 2017: UConn wins 66-55 (away)
Feb. 1, 2018: UConn wins 83-58 (home)
March 26, 2018: UConn wins 94-65 (neutral)
Feb. 11, 2019: UConn wins 97-79 (away)
Feb. 10, 2020: USC wins 70-52 (home)
Feb. 8, 2021: UConn wins 63-59/OT (away)
Nov. 22, 2021: USC wins 73-57 (neutral)
April 3, 2022: USC wins 64-49 (neutral)
