Dawn Staley’s gone and done it again at South Carolina, as Tennessee is latest victim
Oh, baby. Dawn Staley’s gone and done it again. She’s built another dogged, dynamic, determined South Carolina women’s basketball team, one too good to allow Kim Caldwell a storybook moment Monday night.
Caldwell returned to lead Tennessee one week after giving birth to her first child, and Lady Vols fans must have been giddy watching their 36-year-old coach stalk the sideline while her team raced to a nine-point lead as part of a first-quarter blitz that didn’t last.
No. 2 South Carolina withstood the opening onslaught, then asserted control in a 70-63 victory that continued the Gamecocks’ assault on the SEC.
The Gamecocks led by as many as 22 points before No. 17 Tennessee restored respectability with a furious fourth-quarter rally.
Even as Caldwell instills a promising culture at Tennessee, she lacks Staley’s roster.
Kim Caldwell, Lady Vols lack Dawn Staley’s roster – at least for now
Caldwell’s Lady Vols push the tempo. They steal possessions and fire away from distance, but, in Caldwell’s first season, she simply lacks the horses to keep up with Staley’s latest force.
By halftime, 10 Tennessee players had logged at least six minutes. Only four had scored. Each of those four is a transfer, a reflection of the depth to which the Lady Vols’ high school recruiting plummeted throughout the several years before Caldwell’s hire.
