The Guru NCAAW National Report: No. 2 South Carolina Drops No. 5 LSU 66-56 Leaving No. 1 UCLA as the Last Unbeaten in Division I

Guru Note:  The overall low number of games Friday night would not normally be cause to split the report except the nature of the local CAA games and the National/SEC Showdown delayed a day involving LSU and South Carolina due to weather conditions in the South injects a need to have each lead a separate roundup for headline and discussion purposes. The local report is just below this post.

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

And now there is one.

But the living math Friday night that made them the last unbeaten in Division I this season has also given risen to a new debate which is who is the No. 1?

UCLA (19-0,7-0), the current No. 1, will take its record in its Big Ten debut tour Sunday afternoon to No. 8 Maryland at the Terrapins’ XFINITY Center at 2 p.m. on NBC/Peacock in College Park, Md., thanks to the defending NCAA champion No. 2 South Carolina Gamecocks the Bruins soundly beat 77-62 at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles on Nov. 24, but are now making a legitimate claim to still being the best team in the nation, not having not lost since and on Friday night in another Southeastern Conference showdown special in front of a sellout crowd of 18,000 in Colonial Life Arena in Columbia decisively beat No. 5 LSU; 66-56, ending the Tigers’ perfect 20-0 start overall and 5-0 in the conference.

If one wants to give Dawn Staley’s squad (19-1, 7-0) a nickname, The Committee might do the trick.

The team that once showcased A’Ja Wilson, Aaliyah Boston, and just last year Kamilla Cardoso is now staying up to speed with a group that doesn’t have any individual with gaudy numbers yet is starting to look even deadlier than the unbeaten bunch that won its second national championship in three years last April.

“That’s a team over there,” said Texas coach Vic Schaefer after his Longhorns were recently decimated at the start of a phase of the Gamecocks schedule that has a diet of five straight ranked teams.

Friday night was the fourth in the current tablespoon portions of opponents with a trip to then-No. 17 Tennessee on Monday night on ESPN2.

The recent previous outcomes: 67-50 over then-No. 5 Texas; 76-58 at No. 19 Alabama; 101-60 over then-No. 13 Oklahoma; and now 66-56 over LSU (20-1, 5-1).

“We’ve gotten to a place where we’ve trimmed the fat off of losing,” Staley said of the current streak. “Losing to UCLA has helped us. Just kind of refocus and how we need to play to be successful in this league, in the non-conference that we scheduled, and then move into the NCAA tournament.

“Like you have to figure out in any given year what our team needs to do to win. And for us it’s a collective effort. It’s totally a collective effort from a post standpoint and the way the guards need to play and fortunately for us we’ve been able mesh the two of them and create something petty good.

“Because they’re totally connected. They want each other to be good and be successful.”

Don’t let the size of the win over the Tigers fool you because South Carolina has owned LSU to the tune of 17 straight victories and that includes the five since Kim Mulkey left her powerful Baylor program to return to her home state and engage in a rapid rebuild that resulted in an NCAA title her first season, sandwiched between the two of three won by Staley.

In this one, Joyce Edwards scored 14 points and Sania Feagin scored 12 in a contest the Gamecocks unleashed 13 steals and 11 blocks.

The game was delayed a day due to the rare snowstorm that hit the South, which, unlike might have occurred in the semi-recent past, didn’t force ESPN to move it off the main platform to a secondary one. It took slating it at 5 p.m. but it will be intriguing to see what the ratings number will be.

An aside:  Maryland’s game with UCLA is on both NBC and its streaming Peacock, and South Carolina’s game at Tennessee on Monday will be on ESPN2.

Mulkey, who at times has gotten into combative situations at press conferences, was eloquent in this one.

“In this game it was just the little things that was the difference” she said. “To me, it was turnovers at the most critical times that allowed the crowd to get into it, that allowed them to get a little more confidence.

“I think they’re the best in the country,” Mulkey praised. “I know UCLA put it on them, I don’t know if I’ve ever coached a team that has ten McDonald’s all-Americans on the roster.”

She then let a small laugh, continuing, “How do you keep ten on the roster, and that’s what we faced today. And what a challenge it was. And it was an enjoyable game to coach in and it was good for women’s basketball, and it was good for the SEC.

“The bigger thing for South Carolina and LSU right now is what we’re doing for women’s basketball and bring great games.”

Staley on her immediate postgame courtside to TV praised the fan base and called them the main reason the Gamecocks were victorious.

“This crowd showed up. This crowd bored into our team, and we fed off the energy in this building and I think it was great for women’s basketball.

“We didn’t know what a national championship attendance looked like,” said Staley’s whose mark ties the late legend Pat Summitt’s home streak record. “We knew what the basketball looked like but the way the community here in Columbia, South Carolina has embraced our team, and they bored into our team, and they bored into our team in such a way they don’t like us losing.

“They don’t like us losing here or on the road, but we’ve made what women’s basketball looks like when you, our local media, our community, and it isn’t we’re not giving out free tee shirts every night.

“This community, these people that come to our games, we know them, we know them on a personal level, and we love them, and we support them because they support us in a big way, financially, here in Colonial Life Arena, and they travel as well.”

South Carolina, a doormat when Staley left Temple in 2008 to take over the program, has won 69 straight home games and 54 straight regular season SEC contests.

Last week, she received a new contract at $4 million annually and $25 million in overall value that puts her ahead of Mulkey and Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma as the highest paid women’s coach in the history of the sport.

It should be noted that two seasons ago when Mulkey lost, she labelled S.C. the best team in the country, only to see the Gamecocks get upset by Iowa and Caitlin Clark in the national semifinals and then LSU beat the Hawkeyes for their first national title.

On the Tigers side Aneesah Morrow had 15 points and 16 rebounds, another double-double for the DePaul transfer who now ranks second in the category to NCAA record holder Courtney Paris of Oklahoma, who had 112 straight.

“A normal game for her,” Mulkey said.

Flau’Jae Johnson added 13.

“We think we’re pretty locked in,” Staley said of her team’s defense. “I think they really are connected. They understand that we’re pretty good. They do. They understand why we’re good. And that is our gap defense is pretty good, our scramble out when teams get ahead of the possession and then we just got to fight to go get the basketball.

“Tonight, the blocked shots were impressive. Just our grit. Our grit was great. You need all those things to beat a team like LSU.

“We’re a chameleon, we can play any way we need to be. We were forced to play a certain way tonight and it’s just the gravity of the game. It was necessary for us to win this game.

“The implications of the SEC standings. The NCAA tournament. And all those things matter. You can say it’s not a big game, but it is a big game.

“It’s a big game in March when we’re playing in the SEC tournament. It’s a big game when the NCAA committee gets together and sees us winning this game. And for tiebreaker as well.”

As back to the question of No. 1. That is moot in the grand scheme of things.

Anyone who thought TV and attendance would go away once Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese moved on to the WNBA, even if there’s a drop from those watching them last season, the numbers now are still way above what they were before the duo burst onto the scene.

When Staley first got to Temple, and she quickly turned the Owls into a winning force from a sub .500 team before she got there, yours truly suggested some subtle type ways she could send a note to AP media voters to draw attention.

She responded she would rather just let things take care of themselves and, ultimately, they did, and the Owls earned their first national ranking a month later.

So, if you go back letting things get decided on the floor, then for the moment, UCLA earned it, but if ascribing to earning it on the floor, it will take care of itself in one of two ways.

They keep rolling and then meet in the NCAA title game in April in Tampa, Fla., and it will be winner take all.

The other is they take care of business, which means beating a Tennessee team Monday that might decide that’s the night the end-game losses to key opponents has to stop, they keep owning a Connecticut team, now finally healthy, that’s looking like what the vision said before all the injuries, and they keep beating their SEC sisters all the way to selection Sunday.

Right now, as plentiful as the offerings in the sport for the fan was last season, it is about to get overloaded.

And, if the Gamecocks handle their end as listed, UCLA still has two, maybe three, games with Southern Cal.

But also, caution, because this is part game recap, forcing it to go long, all the way down here, and comes the first reminder, don’t forget Notre Dame, and, ultimately, Texas and LSU, pending on paths, are still going to be a force.

On the other hand, if anyone wants to do a reset, and just lay every program on the floor as if brand new without regard to their current ranking number, then, obviously, Staley’s group, right now has the roster and resume to be called No. 1.

Mulkey, answering a question postgame by the media, said her focus is not on beating South Carolina, citing how things are cyclical, how her early years at Baylor in the Big 12, Oklahoma, before realigning, was a constant thorn.

The focus is the big picture, winning the natty.

And that chase right now is about to get third-stage acceleration moon rocket exciting.

Two other games to note off the Friday slate, in the Missouri Valley Conference, Missouri State at home beat visiting Drake 72-68 as six players scored in double figures: Sarah Linthicum (10), Kyrah Daniels (12, 8 rebs.), Lacy Stokes (15,7); Paige Rocca (11), Laine Douglas (10), and Kaemyn Bekemeier (14, 7) for the Lady Bears (14-4, 6-1), who are a half game out of first, to overcome the 28 from Katie Dinnebier of the Bulldogs (11-8, 5-3), who are two games off the pace in fifth.

In the Big Ten in the Northwest, Oregon (15-5) beat visiting Indiana 54-47, the winning Ducks (15-5, 6-3), in 7th place, outscoring the Hoosiers 20-11 in the fourth quarter.

Peyton Scott got 14 points, the only Oregon player in double figures, with six boards.

Indiana (12-7, 4-4), in a three-way tie for 10th, got 14 points from Karoline Striplin, while Sydney Parrish scored 10, and Yarden Garzon grabbed 10 rebounds.

Looking Ahead Nationally

On Saturday, No. 6 Connecticut in the Big East at 5:30 p.m. on FOX is at Creighton in Omaha, Neb., playing the only other team in the conference without a league setback.

Saint John’s is across the border in North Jersey playing at Seton Hall in another Big East game at 1 p.m. on FloSports.

In the Big Ten, an in-state battle, No. 21 Michigan State at noon is in Ann Arbor to meet No. 24 Michigan at noon on the Big Ten Network.

In the Big 12, No. 16 West Virginia at 8:30 p.m. (ESPN+) is at Arizona in Tucson.

We’ll give you the Sunday list rounding up in Saturday’s report.

   And this is zooming out in Saturday’s national roundup.