Guru’s WBB March Madness - I: The Best of the SEC Ready for the Sweet Challenge

By Mike Siroky

The two top Southeastern Conference teams are still alive,  each prepared for the third game of the national tournament.

Texas A&M defends the legends of the league Saturday night as a No. 2 seed taking on the Pac 12’s Arizona, a three seed in the final game of the day.

First, of course, they had to deal with the national conversation after Jordan Nixon hit the shot of the tournament, a buzzer-beater that moved them on over Iowa State.

That exclamation point was featured in all the national network morning talk shows, a phalanx of networks suddenly discovering the joy of women’s college basketball.

Nixon was suddenly the face of the game, but she quickly extended the spotlight with the team.

“I just want people to recognize how hard we work,” she said. “It is important to recognize this team, this team, this team. I do not do anything by myself. Any possession you look during the game, it is someone else setting us up, any number of people.

“I  cannot catch up with it yet. I mean Lebron James congratulating me on  Instagram ... 

“I could  not have imagined that game. So, just as we have been doing, always live in the moment, enjoy it now.”

Her mom had called her before the game.

“Out of the blue, she just called to say she was proud of me, that she loved me. It meant the world to me to hear my mom say I am so extremely proud of you.  It wouldn’t matter what happened, she was going to love me.

“As soon as I could, after the game, I called her. She was shouting, I was shouting.”

It is another Covid-dictated moment that even families cannot attend games.  But it is no less celebratory.

As for Arizona, ”We won’t be able to make a mistake,” Nixon said. 

“We’ll work as a team, that’s the  beauty of our basketball team.”

Coach Gary Blair agreed with her.

“ I tell you, after listening to Jordan, I think and Jordan and I could do a talk show, like Regis,” he said “I can just sit there. This girl is a credit to her parents.

“This is what is missed so many times, we have so many young ladies, young leaders who are going to be college graduates first, who may not be millionaires but we’re going to be college graduates.

“We’re supposed to  be a two seed almost a one seed and yet both (previous playoff) teams have played us to the last possession. You give credit to your opponent. Sometimes you have to win games like this. I don’t have a center who can dunk, a shooter who can fill it up every night. But we have a team.

“We haven’t won a thing at all. All we’ve done is hold serve.

“ I’m  proud to be doing it in my home state. 

“I’m proud for the moment. I was proud of the defense making (Iowa State take) a bad shot. I’m proud of the team running the lanes, giving her options.”

No way was he going to call a time out.

“Transition offense was one of  the few things we were doing well. You didn’t want the master of the  defense over there to set something up. I had the team running and filling the lanes so she had options. 

“She hit the correct shot. 

“Who it is going to be next  (to step up) I don’t know. Our best basketball is in front of us.”

Arizona is in its first Sweet 16 since 1998. Only two players average double-figures. The center is 6-3 Cate Reese, a McDonald’s All-American who escaped Bair’s recruiting from Cypress, Texas, 68 miles south of College Station.

“I know both of her parents went to A&M,” Blair  said. “But she followed a sister to Arizona.”

A&M averages eight more points per game. Arizona allowed just 56 points per game against A&M’s average of 75. Arizona’s average is 66.6, 666 might not be a number you want.

A&M has been led all season by the same five starters.

“I think we embody what it is to be a team. Maybe it’s (Aliyah) Wilson getting 30," said Nixon.

“That is any Texas A&M team, what we embody. We fight, we support each other, unselfishness we doin’t give up.”

”Destiny Pitts was not open, so she screened. She was comfortable with that. She literally said, ‘Jordan I’m setting up a screen, so come off it.’ So I was allowed to shoot.

“I’m flexible that way. And willing to do whatever I can do. This is the end. Preparation is never an area in which we lack.

“In the SEC we are used to quick turnaround.

“Those word were from my heart. I said it because I meant it. Never say die.”

The balanced lineup, having started every game: 5-11 seniior Wilson (12.6 points, 5.0 rebounds, 30 3s, 70 assists, 50 steals); 6-2 senior N’dea Jones (12.2, 10.4 rebounds, 26 steals and 23 blocks); 6-0 senior Kayla Wells (11.4, 51 assists, 24 steals); 5-8 sophomore Nixon (10.9, 86 assists, 31 steals); and 6-4 senior Cierra Johnson (10.6 points, 7.5 rebounds, 29 assists and 23 blocks).

Just as A&M closes the Saturday show, top seed South Carolina opens Sunday, 1 p.m., against Georgia Tech.

Tech coach Nell Fortner may be known for her clownish antics, but she was a serious coach before taking a several-year hiatus to the SEC, helping on ESPN.

Her job there was to endlessly cheerlead, which meant she yahooed a lot about the rise of SC.

She had coached at several institutions and for the 1996 and 2000 OIympic Games, which both featured guard play by Dawn Staley.

Tech (17-8, third in the ACC with six conference losses) counters with 5-7 Finnish junior Lotta-Maj Lahtinen (14.8 with 45 3s and 85 assists); 5-9 senior Kierra Fletcher (12.9) and 6-4 senior Lorelag Cubag (12.4 with 293 rebounds). 

These are all inherited players with a second-year coach. SC has both size and athleticism in their favor, plus a tougher schedule.

“It’s a forever bond,” said Dawn Staley.

Tech (17-8, third in the ACC with six conference losses) has 5-7 Finnish junior Lotta-Maj Lahtinen (14.8 with 45 3s and 85 assists); 5-9 senior Kierra Fletcher (12.9) and 6-4 senior Lorelag Cubag (12.4 with 293 rebounds). 

These are all inherited players with a second-year coach. SC has both size and athleticism in their favor, plus a tougher schedule.

Fortner built a support team that includes Tennessee All-America legacy Tasha Butts. Before this, she worked with another Pat Head All-American at UCLA and LSU before Fortner brought her in.

Another long-time UT legacy, Mickie DeMoss is listed as chief of staff, 40 years in coaching and started working with Fortner here.

So there is some Tennessee DNA in Atlanta.

SC averaged 11 more points per game all season and allowed six less than the Rambling Wreck averaged. The Gamecocks averaged 48 rebounds on the year opponents 33, Tech 17.2

Staley knew all along her deep and talented team, led by the likely best player in conference, was good enough to  be here.

The top seed was well-earned for the No. 6 team in the nation. They  survived one loss in conference, costing them the regular-season title, but coming right back to win the conference tournament and with that the top conference placement in the elimination games.

Other conference coaches vote someone else the top coach and top player, but look who is still plating, representing the toughest conference in America, the Southeastern, half way through the six-game gauntlet to the national title.

One argument is always made if a coach is already in the Halls of Fame, how can anyone not even close to a conference championship be valued as better? That’s why the popularity votes lose luster year after year. Staley is also the National coach in case the Olympics come off.

The same voting nonsense applies to All-America center Aliyah Boston, whom the conference coaches’ popularity poll slighted as not the conference Player of the Year.

Not good enough for the league, yet the national Player of the Year as a vote recorded in The Athletic, a performance-based honor.

And who is playing on still? The best player on the best team.

When needed, Boston, a 6-5 sophomore, can lead in scoring (13.7 per game)  from either underneath or stepping out as far as a 3 shooter. She can certainly rule in the paint (11.7 rebounds, 74 blocks).

And she has a great team around her, other sophomores like 5-9 go-to sophomore guard Zia Cooke (15.9) and 6-1 sophomore guard Brea Beal (7.5).

“We have to stop teams from scoring,” Beal said. “I just love the (defensive) assignment. It gets t(her teammates) going with steals.

“Every team her is clicking with each other. We all want the same thing: A national title.

“I let the game come to me. When we force things, it doesn’t work out.

“As a tea, collectively before the season, we said we’ll take care of each other, not one of those teams when you out the others at risk.”

Other regulars are 5-7 junior guard Destanni Henderson (12.1 with 139 assists) and 6-2 junior forward Victaria Saxton (8.7 with 33 steals ). There are no distractions like is everyone coming back, because they are supplemented by the best recruiting class in America. They will simply reset. Saxton and Beal have missed only one start.

Staley said, “This a group that has been focused all season long. It doesn’t mean we play perfect basketball but the focus is there. Beyond what they have already done.

“(Defensive identity) is something we worked over the entire season. We don’t like losing They have not lost a lot over their defensive careers. They compete at a high level.

“It’s a sefless act. Everybody knows the impact (Beal) has on our team. Certainly she does want to score at the rate she scored in high school.

“But someone will lose out on the way she is highlighted. You have to tell everyone what their role is. We sat down with our players before we came to San Antonio and  said their role is a little it different in the season as it is post-season. We have to get (reserves) up to speed as we need them. They have to be ready. You may just have to stand on the sideline and cheer.

“But you may be called into the game.”