Staley says winning stacked SEC much tougher

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Dawn Staley has won eight Southeastern Conference Tournaments since taking over as head coach at South Carolina in 2008.

She sees winning a ninth as the biggest challenge yet.

To say the SEC is loaded is an understatement. The conference boasts five teams in the top 12 of the most recent AP poll, including No. 1 Texas, No. 5 South Carolina, No. 9 LSU, No. 10 Oklahoma and No. 12 Kentucky. In all, seven teams are ranked in the Top 25, and that doesn’t include 17-time tournament champion Tennessee.

The SEC is so competitive that the Sooners, despite their top 10 ranking, finished fifth in the conference and didn’t even receive a double bye in the tournament.

“By far, the toughest. … the toughest,” Staley said of this year’s level of competition in the SEC tournament compared to previous seasons.

South Carolina (27-3) will be the No. 1 seed for the fourth straight season after winning a coin flip on Sunday with Texas.

Both teams finished 15-1 in conference play and split the season series with South Carolina winning 67-50 on Jan. 12 in Columbia and the Longhorns responding with a 66-62 victory in Austin on Feb. 9. A highly-anticipated rubber match could come Sunday in Greenville — if both teams are able to make it through the gauntlet that awaits.

The Gamecocks have plenty of big-game experience. They’ve won four of the last five SEC tournament titles and two of the last three national championships. But Staley said all of that “goes down the drain” this year given the addition of Texas and Oklahoma to the conference.

“We have two teams that we didn’t have to deal with last year and that is Texas and Oklahoma, and that will have an impact on the outcome,” Staley said. “They had an impact in the regular season and now (will have an impact on) the tournament.”

Booker leads No. 1 Texas

Texas (29-2) enters the tournament on a 13-game winning streak and ranked first in the country for the first time in 21 years, a testament to the job head coach Vic Schaefer has done in Austin.

It helps the Longhorns have one of the best players in the country in Madison Booker, who is averaging 16 points, 6.5 points and 1.6 steals per game. With Booker leading the way, Schaefer believes the Longhorns are capable of winning out.

“We have a three-game tournament and a six-game tournament in front of us and the gauntlet that this group’s been through, there’s not going to be anything that they haven’t seen,” Schaefer said.

LSU without Johnson

Although the Longhorns were disappointed they didn’t win the coin flip, they take can take heart knowing that being the No. 2 seed might actually give them an easier path to Sunday’s championship game.

That’s because No. 3 seed LSU (27-4), a potential opponent in the semifinals, will be without star Flau’jae Johnson, who’ll miss the conference tournament with a shin injury. Tigers coach Kim Mulkey said she wants Johnson to get rested for the NCAA Tournament.

The Tigers lost 85-77 to unranked Mississippi in the season finale without Johnson.

“I don’t feel like anything we do in the conference tournament, even if we lost both games, will affect us hosting here” in the NCAA Tournament, Mulkey said. “We have a great body of work and Flau’jae will be back.”

Kentucky features ACC look

Kentucky lured head coach Kenny Brooks away from Virginia Tech last offseason and it has been a boon for the Wildcats, who finished fourth in the league despite having 11 new players. Georgia Amoore and Clara Strack followed Brooks to Lexington, as did some of his incoming recruits, and the team has a very Atlantic Coast Conference feel to it.

But the Wildcats (22-6) have adjusted well.

“The beautiful thing about the SEC being stacked is we’re part of the stack, and we’re excited about that,” Brooks said.

Brooks called Amoore, who needs just eight assists to break the school’s single-season assist record, “the best point guard in the country.” Strack, who had 23 points in Sunday’s loss at South Carolina, has taken a huge step forward as a sophomore.

OU trending upward

The Sooners (23-6) are on a seven-game win streak, including a 91-84 win over No. 20 Auburn on Sunday, but would need to win four games in four days to capture the tournament. A potential quarterfinal match with Kentucky awaits.

Early Tennessee showdown?

Eighth-seeded Vanderbilt (21-9) might not have the deepest team in the SEC, but the Volunteers have two women who can really fill it up. Mikayla Blakes and Khamil Pierre rank second and fourth in the SEC in scoring, both averaging more than 20 points per game.

A potential second-round matchup with in-state rival Tennessee appears imminent, providing the ninth-seeded Vols get by 16 seed Texas A&M. Tennessee (21-8) has struggled down the stretch and will have to play on the first day of the tournament, a shocking development for this once dominant program.

The Vols would have to win five games in five days to win their 18th conference tournament title.