There is something that everyone must understand about the climate of women’s college basketball before grasping the gravity of Missouri’s upset win over South Carolina on Thursday night: the competition in the NCAA is a monopoly run by a select few teams.
Stanford, UConn and Notre Dame are arguably the three true, constant blue-chip schools. There are cycles where three or four other teams enter and drop out of that top tier, and the South Carolina Gamecocks are one of them right now.
Under head coach Dawn Staley, they were a combined 301-55 since 2011-12 with seven Sweet 16 appearances, three Final Fours, and a national championship win. They have won the SEC five times and finished either first or second in the conference five years in a row.
So whenever they have a slip-up, the entire country notices. This is not even limited to losing. Their first half play against No. 2 Stanford earlier this year was scrutinized as they found themselves behind 42-28 at the break and trailed by as much as 18. Despite putting it together in the second half, the Cardinal provided everyone with a roadmap to success.
Even with this, nobody saw unranked, shorthanded Missouri as a threat.
Despite being significantly smaller than the opposition, the Tigers limited star forward Aliyah Boston to only a single point in the first half. They did this through a willingness to give up open looks from beyond the arc, keeping their good defensive guards in the area of Boston to wreak havoc in her passing lanes. Everything else fell into place, and the Gamecocks went 6-21 from deep.
Junior forward Hayley Frank stepped up in Aijha Blackwell’s absence to become the team’s top scorer. She played one of the best halves of any Missouri player ever, scoring 14 points on 4-5 shooting in the first half, and set the tone on the interior, drawing three charges in the first quarter alone.
Most of all, Missouri’s guards stepped up. Mama Dembele continues to be one of the best perimeter defenders in the SEC and Lauren Hansen (as inconsistent as she can be) had 21 points, including the game-winning layup in overtime.
All this happened while playing with only seven players. Mizzou’s backcourt, which was so important against South Carolina, was wiped out, including Blackwell, a preseason all-SEC second team guard.
Mizzou has now played two top 5 teams in the country down to the wire. It is easy to dismiss the Baylor game earlier this year because of the Tigers inability to close that game out. This win, however, has captured the attention of everyone.
The echoes from Thursday night at Mizzou Arena will be heard across all of college basketball for months to come.