TAMPA, Fla. — South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley is no stranger to the Final Four.
It will be her fifth consecutive Final Four on Friday (7 p.m., ESPN), as the No. 1 seed Gamecocks (34-3) face No. 1 seed Texas for the fourth time this season.
Though the Longhorns (35-3) haven't made it this far in March Madness since 2003, coach Vic Schaefer has faced Staley in the postseason many times. Before taking the job in Austin, Schaefer spent eight years with Mississippi State and in 2017, Staley beat Schaefer with now WNBA star A'ja Wilson to win the program's first title.
Staley is 5-0 against Schaefer's teams in the SEC tournament championship. She's 2-0 in NCAA tournament games, the most recent March Madness win on March 21, 2021, when South Carolina beat Texas in the Elite Eight during Schaefer's first season.
This season, South Carolina lost 66-62 in Austin, but won the first regular-season match in Columbia 67-50.
"We're both defensive minded," Staley said. "It's probably we've had a bigger offensive spurt throughout those games that we've played that were at a higher stake, and I do think it's going to take that ... we're not going to rely on our success against them to say 'Hey, we beat them.' I'm looking at the loss and how we can prevent that ... I think it's just about our bigger offensive runs at any given time within the game."
Staley added that the early foul trouble her team got in to start the road game really impacted the offensive flow.
Texas' offense is led by sophomore Madison Booker, who is traditionally a forward but spent most of her freshman year playing guard. Her dynamic scoring with mid-range jumpers separates her from other stars, and her 16.5 points per game doesn't accurately paint just how easy she can score on the fly.
"She's a bona fide scorer," Staley said of Booker. "Not even a bona fide scorer, she's a playmaker. She can score the basketball with the best of them. She can play multiple positions and she's versatile."
Senior Bree Hall has guarded Booker the last three matchups, with help from Raven Johnson and Tessa Johnson, in addition to dropoff help from post players. Hall will get the direct matchup again on Friday, something that Raven Johnson said Hall is excited about.
"You have to play her one-and-a-half players," Staley said. "You can't just straight up play her because she has so much of a skill set that if you don't show whoever is guarding her and then show - close her space off, because she's able to rise above. She's a big guard that can pretty much get her shot off at any given time."
With so much offensive prowess, Staley said a key will be forcing Booker to play tough defense.
"She's a willing defender," Staley said. "With how much she needs to score for them, you have got to make her play on that other side of the basketball so ...
