The Guru NCAA Report: South Carolina and NC State Reach Final Four With Iowa/LSU and UConn/Southern Cal Contesting the Other Two Spots Monday Night

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

ALBANY, N.Y. — Easter Sunday became a day of redemption of sorts in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament with half the Final Four field for this weekend’s conclusion in Cleveland filled here in the MVP Arena where overall No. 1 seed and top ranked South Carolina stayed unbeaten and put on the brakes of a diminished lead for the second straight game beating No.4 and 12^th-ranked Oregon State 70-58 while in the Portland Regional 4  third seed and 11^th ranked NC State upset No. 1 and fourth-ranked Texas 76-66.

That South Carolina, the Dawn Staley-coached squad, is heading back for the third straight year on one hand is no surprise considering how the Gamecocks (36-0) dominated the season.

But the North Philadelphia-born Staley and her team a year ago hit the national semifinals unbeaten and got shocked by Iowa and the Caitlin Clark scoring phenomenon and faced a retooling job with all five starters graduating.

The preseason poll had South Carolina ranked sixth but on opening day the Gamecocks blitzed Notre Dame in Paris and in what became a trend-setter week of upsets over the next five months quickly rocketed back to No. 1 and stayed there after going wire-to-wire in 2003.

“Just proud,” Staley said. “Just proud because we beat the odds. The odds said that we weren't-- we shouldn't make it back to the Final Four.

“Just proud of our team and for them believing in themselves. They created a certain level of chemistry and culture, and they stuck with it, and then they allowed us to coach them. They trusted us to coach them, even when it didn't feel good to them personally at different times of this season.

“Then overall I just think that-- I think God has a funny way of dealing with people, and I'm one of his, and for us to lose the way we lost last year and for him to bring us to this point today makes me believe a little deeper,” she continued.

“… I know that when you're at your worst in your weakest moments, He’s at his best, and He started working on that the day that that buzzer sounded last year during this time. I'm proud of our team, and I don't want to ever not give God the glory for giving us uncommon favor.”

For NC State, the Wolfpack, whose men’s team advanced making it the 14^th time dual programs stayed alive into the last weekend, Wes Moore’s team finally experiences joy just two years after an Elite Eight heartbreaking loss in double overtime to powerful Connecticut near the Huskies home in Bridgeport.

‘I didn’t know if I’d ever get another chance,” Moore said of that devastating defeat.

It’s just the second time in the Final Four for NC State (31-6) and first since 1998 when the Wolfpack advanced under the late Hall of Famer Kay Yow and lost to Louisiana Tech in the semifinals.

Unranked in the preseason poll and picked low in the Atlantic Coast Conference, NC State upset then-No. 2 Connecticut at the end of the first week and became a national factor ever since, upsetting two-seed and fifth-ranked Stanford in Friday’s region semifinals.

“Everybody doubted us. We weren't even ranked before the season, and now we're going to the Final Four,” said Aziaha James, who shot a career-high seven 3-pointers on nine attempts and finished with 27 points.

She did it on a court that was discovered pre-game to have mismatched 3-point lines by a foot though four games had been played at the Moda Center Friday and Saturday without any awareness.

The rest of the field for Cleveland will be filled Monday night, third-seeded and 10^th-ranked Connecticut (37-5) in Portland meeting top-seed and third-ranked Southern Cal (29-5) at 9 p.m. – the NCAA said the court problems will be fixed — after the highly anticipated showdown here at 7 p.m., both on ESPN, between top-seed and No. 2 ranked Iowa (32-4) and three-seed and eighth-ranked LSU (31-5), the defending NCAA champions.

The latter repeats last season’s championship meeting watched by 9.9 million, featuring Clark, now the all-time NCAA Division I Women’s scoring champion, and the Tigers’ Angel Reese.

That game set the stage for the explosive popularity of the sport this season, with record TV ratings and sold-out arenas, especially wherever Clark played.

Staley quipped when mentioned how her team was being overshadowed by the attention on Monday’s game along with LSU coach Kim Mulkey, who had been taking issue with a profile on her published Saturday in the Washington Post and column done in the L.A. Times Saturday in advance of the Tigers playing second-seeded UCLA.

“…I like it,” Staley said with a laugh. “I really do. Like go ahead, take the spotlight, put it somewhere else. Let this team continue to thrive in the space that they're given.

 “Hopefully at the end of the day, next week this time, I'm hoping that we give a lot of people a lot to talk about,” she continued.

“But it's like that. I mean, I'm looking forward to tomorrow night's game. Now that we've won, i'm going to sit back and i'm going to enjoy it like everybody else, like probably millions and millions of people are going to tune into that game.

“I’m going to be one of them. I don’t have Nielsen ratings in my house, but you can count me in to watch the game tomorrow night.”

In her game, here, reserve Tessa Johnson had 15 points while Kamilla Cardoso, who transferred from Syracuse last season, had 12 points and nine rebounds, earning most outstanding player honors.

Brea Hall had 10 points and Ashlyn Watkins had eight points, 14 rebounds and blocked four shots.

Oregon State (27-8), another team off the radar at the start of the season, picked low in the final go-round of the Pac-12, had to cope with foul trouble by its post players, sophomore Reagan Beers, who had 16 points and eight rebounds with three blocked shots, and Timea Gardiner, who had 12 points and 10 rebounds, while freshman guard Donovyn Hunter had 10 points and five assists, and Lily Hansford had 12 points.

Most of the squad is returning when it and Washington State, neither of which received Power 5 invitations, will play the next two seasons in the West Coast Conference along with all other sports but football, which will retain Pac-12 identity with hope to form a new group in the brand after 2026.

UCLA, Southern Cal, Washington and Oregon are heading to the Big Ten; Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado are going to the Big 12; and Stanford and California are going to the ACC, joined by SMU from the American Athletic Conference.

Texas and Oklahoma are leaving the Big 12 for the SEC.

Back here, the Gamecocks held a slim four-point lead at the half, built a 14-point lead after the break off a 12-0 run, then had to withstand a Beavers rally to within four, 62-58, with 3:55 left in regulation.

Tessa Johnson then scored on a three-point play for South Carolina, but Oregon State missed its last seven shots.

“We got every shot we wanted down the stretch of this game and they didn't fall,” said Oregon State coach Scott Rueck. “Give them credit for not giving us two. In this game we had to be flawless, and we weren’t quite flawless enough.”

In Portland, after James, River Baldwin scored 16, Saniya Rivers scored 11, and Mimi Collins and reserve Zoe Brooks scored 10.

Texas (33-5), which won the Big 12, got 17 points and six rebounds from rookie Madison Booker, who changed positions in late December when standout Rory Harmon was sidelined the rest of the way with a knee injury.

Shay Holle scored 12, reserve Taylor Jones scored 11, and Aaliyah Moore scored 10.

Texas was seeking its first Final Four since 2003.

The Wolfpack had an 18-point lead at the half but a Longhorns rally got to within six at 54-48 when DeYona Gaston scored late in the third quarter.

James replied with a three for NC State and another from deep in the fourth when Texas got within seven points with 4:41 left in regulation.

Booker spoke of the Texas resiliency after Harmon got hurt.

“People go down, and they say, ‘They’re not winning in the Big 12, they’re not winning this many games, they’re not making the Final Four, they’re not making it this far, they’re not a No. 1 seed,’” she noted. “We kept fighting the odds, we made you believe.”

Said Texas coach Vic Schaefer, who coached Mississippi State to a title game in 2017 when SEC rival South Carolina won its first of two, and national semifinal in 2018, “We outrebounded them, 14 on the offensive boards, 13 overall, and we got 20 more shots than they got.

“The first half we really struggled guarding defensively. We’re all disappointed. I mean that locker room is tough.” 

Meanwhile the second game Monday night features a rejuvenated Paige Bueckers, back after sidelined last season with a knee injury, leading a depleted banged-up UConn roster, against a Southern Cal bunch, returning to the national scene for the first time in decades on the play of JuJu Watkins, who is seven short of the national freshman season scoring records.

UConn’s win against Duke moved Geno Auriemma to 1,212 victories just four behind the ongoing collegiate record total of 1,216 by Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer.

Should Iowa not beat LSU, Clark said she will be in Cleveland to accept the USA Basketball olympic training camp invite that will occur in conjunction with the games besides picking up a bunch of national player of the year awards.

That’s this report with a WBIT advance to come or is posted pending when you’re reading this.