{"id":226486,"date":"2026-03-30T04:01:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T04:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/226486\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T04:01:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T04:01:29","slug":"south-carolina-looks-to-get-back-to-womens-final-four-while-tcu-is-charting-its-first-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/226486\/","title":{"rendered":"South Carolina looks to get back to women\u2019s Final Four, while TCU is charting its first trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley, left, reacts to a call during her team’s game against Oklahoma in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA basketball tournament on Saturday in Sacramento.Sara Nevis\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Dawn Staley and South Carolina are mainstays in the Final Four while TCU is looking to reach March Madness\u2019 biggest stage for the first time.<\/p>\n

The two teams will play Monday night in the Sacramento 4 Regional Final with a trip to the women\u2019s national semi-finals on the line. The winner will face undefeated UConn on Friday in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

The Gamecocks have been to the Final Four in six of the past eight seasons and won three national championships during that stretch. Staley has been at the helm for all of them, including the undefeated 2023-24 season.<\/p>\n

South Carolina has a big experience advantage over TCU, which advanced to the Elite Eight for the second consecutive season with basically a whole new roster led by Olivia Miles and Marta Suarez.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they are very calculated and methodical and who they want to shoot the basketball, who they want to be play makers, who they want to be spacers,\u201d Staley said of TCU.<\/p>\n

Coach Mark Campbell has built his team the last two seasons through the transfer portal. He got six players in this past season, including Miles, who turned down going to the WNBA to finish off her college career with the Horned Frogs after transferring from Notre Dame.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve built our program literally all through the portal, for you guys that haven\u2019t followed us,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cI think we\u2019ve had 18 portal players, six each year. And our program\u2019s come a long ways. There\u2019s a lot of negative you hear about the portal. I think there\u2019s a lot of positive too.\u201d<\/p>\n

While most of his team hasn\u2019t been to the Elite Eight, Campbell insists he learned a lot from last season when the Horned Frogs lost to Texas. A lot of last year was a blur to Campbell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m much more prepared in leading our team and understanding and navigating the next 48 hours,\u201d Campbell said after the Sweet 16 win over Virginia. \u201cThen your margin for error, once you get to an Elite Eight, the teams that you\u2019re going to face are just incredible. We have done a better job as a staff getting ahead of that scout and getting a game plan dialed in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Olivia Miles (left) and Marta Suarez of the TCU Horned Frogs react against the Virginia Cavaliers during their game in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament at Golden 1 Center on Saturday in Sacramento.Thien-An Truong\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Stopping Olivia and Marta<\/p>\n

South Carolina will need to figure out a way to slow Miles and Suarez down. The pair combined to either score or assist on all 79 of TCU\u2019s points in the Virginia win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need everybody. In order to beat South Carolina, we\u2019ve got to play the best game we\u2019ve played this season,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cWe\u2019re capable of doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miles, a senior All-America guard, has had a stellar NCAA run. She\u2019s played with a sense of urgency and renewed excitement, upping her play in the tournament.<\/p>\n

Miles is averaging 19.3 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in three games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey play at a slower pace and control the tempo. Somehow we need to speed that up whether it\u2019s through pressure or other way to doing things,\u201d Staley said. \u201cWe\u2019re up for the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dominant performances<\/p>\n

South Carolina has raised its level of play in the NCAA tournament, averaging nearly 100 points a game in the three victories. The Gamecocks are winning by an average of 45 points a game. They have been scoring in a variety of ways. In the victory over Oklahoma, they made 10 of 14 three-point attempts. Earlier games it was the post players who were the main source of offence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley, left, reacts to a call during her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[30686,87721,87729,254,2055,20647,18790,87716,87725,87726,87723,87717,87715,918,163,2327,4953,87720,116,118,117,87739,87718,87719,406,87722,242,251,87730,2631,87734,87735,87737,30165,87736,87731,87733,824,6986,87728,287,87727,87732,12691,3621,6208,87724,734,3317,87738],"class_list":["post-226486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}