COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Raven Johnson believes South Carolina has everything it needs to advance to the Final Four. And few know better than her what it takes to move that far in the NCAA Tournament.
Johnson has reached the Final Four each of her first four seasons and looks to make it five in a row when her top-seeded Gamecocks (31-1) open tournament play against No. 16 Southern (20-13) on Saturday.
Clemson (21-11), seeded eighth in Region 4, follows against No. 9 seed Southern California (17-13). The winners play on Monday for a spot in the Sweet 16 at Sacramento, California.
“In March, it gets hard,” Johnson said. “I say we want to focus on it one game at a time, just being in the moment where our feet are.”
That’s served South Carolina well the last five seasons, all of which ended in the Final Four. Johnson was a highly regarded recruit — No. 2 in the country — when she joined the Gamecocks for the 2021-22 season. An early season injury cost her that year, which ended with South Carolina’s second national title.
A healthy Johnson and her team fell to Caitlin Clark’s Iowa in the national semifinals in 2023 before the Gamecocks became the most recent undefeated team to win a national title the next season. A year ago, Johnson and South Carolina came up short to UConn in the championship game.
Johnson wants a last chance at a title and likes the makeup of her team, where only five of its 11 players have Final Four experience. The Gamecocks lost starter Chloe Kitts to injury this past fall and stellar backup Milaysia Fulwiley to the transfer portal after she left for LSU.
It hasn’t always been an easy transition, but Johnson thinks the newcomers, like her high school teammate Ta’Niya Latson and Mississippi State transfer Madina Okot, are anxious to experience what South Carolina has accomplished so often.
“It does get hard, especially when you’re experiencing something for the first time,” Johnson said. “You have to fight through those things and I think each player on this team has fought through the adversity.”
Southern, the Southeastern Athletic Conference tournament champion, defeated Samford in a First Four matchup this week. It’s Southern’s second straight year with an NCAA win after defeating UC San Diego in a First Four contest before falling to top seed UCLA.
Southern coach Carlos Funchess says his team will prepare like always and give the Gamecocks their best. He remembers as a player for NE Louisiana (Now Louisiana-Monroe) when took on Duke’s national title team with stars Chrisian Laettner, Grant Hill and Bobby Hurley.
“At that time, I thought we had an advantage from a speed standpoint,” said Funchess, who’s 15th-seeded team lost to the 1991 national champs 102-73.
“Same in this game,” he continued about the Gamecocks. “I think that although South Carolina is really, really athletic, that we have some extremely good athletes and that we can exploit somethings that they don’t do as well defensively.”
Clemson’s bond
Clemson coach Shawn Poppie has the program in the NCAAs for the first time since 2019. He credits a lot of it to a targeted, yet hands off, approach to bonding a group with nine newcomers.
Each week, one player was assigned to take the rest of the team — no coaches — to do something they enjoyed. There were things like watching a sunset over Lake Hartwell beside campus and writing down things they wanted to shred from their past.
“It was more than just we’re going to go sit at somebody’s house,” Poppie said. “They really took it to heart and accepted the fact that they wanted to get to know each other.”
Dunk time
South Carolina’s newest player, 6-foot-7 Alicia Tournebize, gave a hint at what’s coming as she gains experience. The French freshman threw down a one-handed jam during workouts on Thursday. The Gamecocks have had three dunks in a game in their history, all by 6-3 Ashlyn Watkins, who took this year off from school as she rehabbed a knee injury.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
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