-
Andrea Edelson
Tampa, Fla. – South Carolina coach Don Steel questioned the story that surrounded Ukon Guard Page Beukers on Saturday to win a national championship and on Saturday, saying that she had any discussion about her players.
GameCox will try to repeat as a national champion on Sunday in a national title game against Hakis, who had already defeated him in the season. Bueckers is trying to win his first national title with Hakis in its final season with the program.
Steeli was asked if she felt that Beukers needed to win a title to cement their legacy as a great great in the game. He was asked a question about Calin Clarke last year, which was played by South Carolina in the game of national title. South Carolina defeated Iowa 87–75 to beat 38–0 as a national champion.
“Sometimes we create these narratives about great players – Ketin was one of them; Pagi is now one of them – and we forget the story what our children are able to do, going for their third in four years,” Stelli said on Saturday. “There is a passionate story about Paiggy. A great freakine player. Any person will start his franchise with Pagi because he is a winner. … But when you take out a legend from there, everyone sees it, and it puts us in a loss, whether you believe it or not. It is all.”
Steel said that she wants the discussion about both the beukers and her players. Uconn has not won a national championship since 2016 and lost to South Carolina in the title game in 2022, when the Beukers scored 14 points.
“He is a great player, but just because you are a great player, it does not mean that you need to win the national championship to legalize it,” said the stell. “Pagi is valid. Her career is mythological. She will give up a legacy in Uconn whether she wins one or not.
“I want to keep it out of there. I can’t address it because it is happening. It happened to us last year. Everything was about Ketlin Clarke and his legacy and his ability to win a national championship. Still we were undefeated, at that time we were doing something like that. We find ourselves back in a similar situation.”
Although South Carolina is not undefeated around this time, GameCox left behind the loss of three regular-seasons to find a way. This includes a loss of 87-58 to Uconn in February, which snatched the 71-game winning streak.
The players on Saturday reflected at the loss, but also worked as an inspiration to learn and correct mistakes so that they could complete their discovery to repeat. South Carolina has not been lost since then, and although it required a return to three NCAA tournament games-included Sweet 16 and Elite Eight-Backkox performed his full potential in the 74–57 victory over Texas in the semi-finals on Friday.
“(Uconn) was an embarrassing disadvantage to us, and we knew that we are strong and better coming back,” said guard Te-Hina Popo. “We are now a completely different team, and so we’ve got to perform that tomorrow for just 40 minutes.”
Actually, he now has a chance to repeat for the first time in school history. What’s more, Sania Paagin, Reven Johnson and Brie Hall all have the opportunity for GameCox to win their third national title in four years.
“I want emotions to be about our players and what our players could do – equally, because both have space to,” the stale said. “We can increase the pagi because it deserves it and lifts up our players because they deserve it. And we are not talked about enough. We have a place for it in our game. Let’s not choose a history, there is no history of history on the history of any other program. We do not choose a player on the history of a player because we are making history for our game.”
