March 2, 2005
Columbia, S.C. – The word drifted to Melanie Johnson, and she treated it like an airborne parasite.
Underdog? For the SEC Tournament? Hardly.
“We’ve turned some heads. We lost all of our SEC games up to Alabama and Kentucky, and we had Ole Miss on the ropes at their place. I think we’ve gained the respect of a lot of teams,” the Barnwell sophomore said.
Untrained eyes may see only an 8-20 record, and a #12 seed in the SEC Tournament. But the Gamecocks, winners of two of their last three, see a team that is ready to shake up the brackets in Greenville.
Like a snake shedding its skin, they’ve left behind an 0-11 start in SEC play. They’ve absorbed their greatest adversity, and have played some of their most inspired ball of the season.
“The individuals on our team are believing in the team more than they ever have,” said head coach Susan Walvius.
It hasn’t been easy. Lauren Simms went down with a sprained knee. Lea Fabbri went home after the passing of her father. Walvius has had to use several players out of position, such as Stacy Booker at point guard and Johnson at small forward.
Walvius says her team’s attitude has helped it overcome the hardship.
“I don’t see a lot of blaming – not blaming the staff, not blaming each other. Everybody is working to give a little bit more, get better, and for a young team I can’t expect more from our group,” she said.
Booker has been savoring every minute of it – quite literally. With Simms and Fabbri out, Booker has turned into a backcourt beast of burden, averaging 38 minutes over the last three games.
“Yeah, it’s tough,” the sophomore said. “I’m feeling it in practice, but I know I got to get through it if I want to win.”
Reluctant as she may be to run the point, Walvius knows her play has been key to the team’s late success.
“We’re reading each other better. We’re making better decisions when things break down. We’re communicating better on the floor, defensively and offensively,” she said.
They have taken the best shots, of foe and fate alike. Yet the Gamecocks will enter the SEC Tournament with a hard-wrought confidence. They know that tomorrow represents the beginning, not the end.
“It would give us a chance to know where we’re starting next year,” Johnson said,
Stacy Booker put it best. “We know a lot of things that other people don’t know. We just got to go out there and show it.”
Tip Drill
Bus-ted: A quick post-script from the trip to pre-game meal at Tennessee. That grating sound you heard was the bus scraping against a stop sign while attempting to turn around a narrow Knoxville street. The stop sign bent, from the ill-fated turn.
In Case You’re Wondering: According to assistant coach Linda Hill-MacDonald, she spends anywhere from 9 to 12 hours preparing a scouting report for an opponent. Picture playing on back-to-back days in a tournament, and you have a small insight into life as a coach.
