No. 3 LSU rising up as South Carolina’s newest SEC challenger. How Tigers got there
A post duel, a sellout crowd and an SEC title on the line.
Sunday’s game between No. 1 South Carolina and No. 3 LSU has the makings of an instant classic. The matchup features the top two teams in the SEC coached by two of the winningest and most decorated coaches in the nation. It’s also a battle between the last two undefeated teams in the country.
The Tigers are a program on the rise in their second year under Kim Mulkey. The team went 13-3 in conference play last season and is making another leap this year. It’s finding success in the 2022-23 campaign with a spotless record.
LSU hasn’t beaten South Carolina since 2012 and is winless in Columbia since 2010.
USC, led by Dawn Staley, is the unanimous No. 1 team in the country and defending national champion, stocked with the reigning National Player of the Year, two late-season Wooden Award finalists and the best scoring defense in the country.
LSU will come to town vying for South Carolina’s throne, and thousands will watch to see if the Tigers’ roster can challenge the Gamecocks.
“I wouldn’t bet a penny against either one of them when they play,” Arkansas head coach Mike Neighbors said. “It’s just gonna be fun to sit back and watch.”
Bracing for a ‘double ice bath game’
The 23-0 Tigers sit beside South Carolina atop the SEC mountain this season.
It took some work for LSU to reach its current status. The team won nine total games the year before Mulkey took over in 2021, and hadn’t played in the NCAA tournament since 2017.
Mulkey was named AP National Coach of the Year, but her first year with the Tigers didn’t yield great postseason results. They were bounced in the first round of the SEC tournament as the No. 2 seed, and lost as a 3 seed in the NCAA tournament’s second round. This year’s team, however, has asserted itself in a big way.
The team features SEC Player of the Year candidate Angel Reese, who transferred in from Maryland last offseason and is averaging 23.5 points and 15.8 rebounds per game — with a double-double in all 23 games.
The elite backcourt features freshman guard Flau’jae Johnson and senior guard Alexis Morris, who joined the team last year after transferring from Texas A&M. At 86.7 points per game, the Tigers possess the highest scoring offense in the conference and third-highest in the country.
LSU received criticism for its nonconference schedule, which featured one game against a Power Five opponent. Mulkey attributed that to the rebuilding process the team went through as she assembled her roster.
Still, the Tigers sit at No. 3 in the NET rankings and No. 3 in The Associated Press poll coming into Sunday.
“That game is a double ice bath game,” ESPN analyst Debbie Antonelli said. “You’re gonna need two when the game’s over. Not one, but two. That’s going to be phenomenal.”
Both USC and LSU have similar styles of play, running their offenses through the post and relying on guards to add strong perimeter scoring. South Carolina has been the better team defensively, giving up more than 70 points just twice — against then-No. 2 Stanford and then-No. 5 UConn.
Down low, Reese will have to face Aliyah Boston, the reigning Final Four Most Outstanding Player who’s lost just eight games across four seasons at South Carolina.
Boston is a force on both ends of the court, as she is third in the SEC in blocked shots. She’s recorded a double-double in eight of her last nine games. Her dominance as a Gamecock can’t be overstated when looking at her decorated college resume.
“I cannot wait for them to play each other and see how the rebounding battle goes,” Neighbors said. “The biggest challenge that day will be for the SEC to get an officiating crew that can manage it. What do you tell a kid, box out? Seriously? That’s not gonna work.”
With so much on the line Sunday, both sides are expected to come in focused. But USC fans will look to make that impossible for the Tigers.
LSU will compete inside a sold-out Colonial Life Arena, where South Carolina hasn’t lost in more than two years. The game directly precedes the Super Bowl, giving those in Columbia another big event to focus on.
The Tigers will do their best to drown out the noise of exhilarated Gamecock fans.
“It’s also not only a double ice bath, that’s a fire marshal game,” Antonelli said. “Might be more people in the game than there are tickets, which is awesome.”
Past SEC challengers
South Carolina has won at least a share of the SEC regular season six times since 2014. USC has won six conference tournaments in that span as well. Under Staley, South Carolina has sent eight players to the WNBA.
Mississippi State spent years as the team closest to South Carolina’s dominance in the SEC. The team won back-to-back SEC regular-season titles in 2018 and 2019, and finished in the top three every season from 2015-20.
The Bulldogs were coached by Vic Shaefer, who, despite the SEC success, won just three times against South Carolina head-to-head. The Gamecocks’ most notable victory against Mississippi State came in the 2017 national championship, the first one in USC history.
Johnnie Harris, the Bulldogs’ associate head coach under Schaefer and current Auburn head coach, has coached in the SEC for 18 years, seeing Staley’s Gamecocks on numerous occasions.
“They have multiple ways that they can attack you,” Harris said. “And really, if they’re all on and they’re hitting, there’s not a lot you can do about it.”
Tennessee dominated the conference for years under Pat Summitt, but has won the SEC regular season just twice since she retired in 2012. The Lady Volunteers shared the title with USC in 2015 and were the tournament champions in 2014.
Texas A&M joined the conference during the 2012-13 season and had a strong run under Gary Blair, who retired after last season. The Aggies finished in the top three several times and won one regular season title in 2021. Blair went 4-9 against USC.
Joni Taylor now coaches the Aggies, who lost their meeting with the Gamecocks this season. Taylor previously coached against USC as Georgia’s head coach, taking over at Texas A&M in 2022.
“Dawn’s done a tremendous job of building a program (at USC), and she just continues to reload every year,” Taylor said.
Mulkey vs. Staley
Sunday will be the fifth time Staley and Mulkey have matched up.
Mulkey bested Staley in two of the three meetings they had when Mulkey was the head coach at Baylor, including a 2019 Sweet Sixteen win en route to a national championship. Staley and the Gamecocks defeated LSU 66-60 in Baton Rouge last season, ending the Tigers’ 13-game winning streak.
Mulkey has three national championships to her name, all with the Bears. She sits at 681 career wins to Staley’s 560.
During the offseason, Mulkey was a topic of conversation after declining to speak publicly about Brittney Griner’s incarceration in Russia. Mulkey coached Griner at Baylor for one of her national championships, but the two reportedly have not had a strong relationship since then.
That contrasted with Staley, who remained one of Griner’s primary public supporters. She campaigned for her release on social media and wore an “We Are BG” pin nearly every day before she was freed.
Both fan bases have spent time on social media campaigning for which coach is better and who they’d rather play for if given the opportunity. But Staley and Mulkey have not engaged in a war of words over the years.
Sunday’s game gives both coaches the chance to break the tie in head-to-head meetings.
LSU’s rise to the top of the SEC standings could signal a change in the power dynamic, or it might be a flash in the pan. South Carolina’s dominance in recent years presents a difficult model to follow.
For now, LSU remains in USC’s shadow, looking for a way to share its light.
“I don’t view it as a rivalry in any way. No one’s on their level,” Mulkey told reporters on Thursday. “I think we’re just another school in the SEC that’s trying to do what they have done.”
South Carolina vs. LSU basketball details
- Who: No. 1 Gamecocks (24-0, 11-0 SEC) vs. No. 3 Tigers (23-0, 11-0)
- When: 2 p.m. Sunday
- Where: Colonial Life Arena
- TV/stream: ESPN and the ESPN app
This story was originally published February 10, 2023 at 7:00 AM with the headline "No. 3 LSU rising up as South Carolina’s newest SEC challenger. How Tigers got there."
