COLUMBIA, S.C. -- South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said Thursday that preparation might have earned her top-seeded team divine favor.
"Sometimes the basketball gods favor that," Staley said ahead of the Gamecocks' first-round NCAA tournament game Friday against Presbyterian. "Preparation has allowed us to get lucky sometimes."
South Carolina (32-0) is the only undefeated team in Division I men's or women's college basketball.
That almost wasn't the case. In the Southeastern Conference tournament semifinals, senior center Kamilla Cardoso banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give South Carolina a 74-73 win over Tennessee. It was her first 3-point shot in three seasons with the Gamecocks.
Divine intervention from preparation?
"I think our players play free," Staley said. "They play as if there are no consequences, and that's a gift and a curse for someone like me."
Earlier this month, Staley was named SEC coach of the year for the third straight season.
"If you have a conversation with [players], it's like they have short-term memory." she said. "They only think about the winning part of it. They don't really think about how we won or how we could have lost. It's worked for this team thus far. I don't know if it'll work throughout the tournament."
The top-seeded Gamecocks take on 16th-seeded Presbyterian in Columbia. South Carolina defeated Presbyterian 99-29 in the teams' previous matchup in Columbia on Dec. 16. This time, South Carolina will be without Cardoso, who is suspended for the first round after being ejected for fighting in a 79-72 win over LSU in the SEC championship game.
Late in the fourth quarter, South Carolina guard MiLaysia Fulwiley stole the ball from the Tigers' Flau'jae Johnson. Johnson grabbed Fulwiley's jersey for an intentional foul to stop a possible breakaway layup. In the ensuing scuffle, Johnson pushed Gamecocks' forward Ashlyn Watkins before Cardoso ran up on Johnson and pushed her to the floor. Players from both benches came onto the floor, leading to mass ejections.
Cardoso was the sole player from that altercation suspended from the first round of the NCAA tournament.
"She deserved to be disqualified," Staley said. "No doubt about it. But there were some other parties that should have been penalized. I don't know [about] penalized to the point of disqualification, but definitely ejection for that particular game."