South Carolina’s daunting schedule continues

Dawn Staley has challenged South Carolina with an extremely tough early season schedule.

The No. 3 Gamecocks have already faced four opponents who have made appearances in the AP Top 25 and have two more this week with No. 8 Duke and No. 9 TCU on the schedule.

Coach Staley saw her team respond to a loss for the first time in more than a year when the Gamecocks blew out then-No. 15 Iowa State by 40 after a loss at UCLA.

“We told our team this is our second loss in two years,” Staley said after the loss. “No it doesn’t feel good, but yes we have to figure things out. And we will.”

And they did. Facing good competition early will hopefully help the Gamecocks keep their success in March going.

Their next two matchups will further challenge the Gamecocks. The game against the Blue Devils on Thursday is part of the ACC-SEC challenge. It’s one of many great games in the battle between the conferences.

No. 4 Texas visits 10th-ranked Notre Dame; No. 22 Louisville hosts 11th-ranked Oklahoma and No. 5 LSU hosts Stanford.

Hopping along

TCU earned its first victory over a top-five team since 2008 with the eight-point victory over then-No. 3 Notre Dame. The Horned Frogs will have a chance to get another one against South Carolina. The Gamecocks will need to find a way to slow Sedona Prince, who became the first player in NCAA history to have 20 points, 20 rebounds and eight blocks in a game against a top five team. The Horned Frogs have their best ranking in school history.

Coming to the Big Apple

A doubleheader will come to Barclays Center on Saturday with Tennessee facing No. 17 Iowa and second-ranked UConn playing Louisville. It’s the first year of the Women’s Champions Classic. Louisville is the only team in the group that’s lost a game this season with the Cardinals having two defeats — both coming against ranked teams (UCLA and Kentucky).

Rising Terrapins

No. 7 Maryland (8-0) is off to its best start since 2018-19 when the school won its first 12 games. The Terrapins already have a win over Duke and don’t face another ranked opponent until potentially Dec. 29 when they face No. 24 Michigan State. That begins a stretch of nine games when they could face six Top 25 teams.