How South Carolina WBB receives unique travel status for NCAA Tournament

Sacramento, California.

To steal a line from “The Wizard of Oz,” South Carolina’s not in Columbia anymore.

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And if the Gamecocks have it their way, they won’t head back to their home state until Monday, April 6 — 12 days after USC first embarked on an NCAA Tournament journey that’s taken the team to California and, now, Arizona.

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On Monday night, the South Carolina women’s basketball team beat TCU 78-52 in an Elite Eight game at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California that tipped at 9:20 p.m. and ended at 11:06 p.m. Eastern.

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They cut the net. They celebrated. Then they headed straight to the airport.

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As the fourth overall seed in the field, USC didn’t get the luxury of playing its Elite Eight game on Sunday. After a recent rule change prompted by Dawn Staley, that privilege is reserved for the tournament regions containing the top two seeds.

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Instead, the Gamecocks took an overnight flight from Sacramento (Pacific Time) to Phoenix (Mountain Time) and settled into their new hotel lodgings early Tuesday. They’ll be facing a sleep/rest deficit compared to their Friday Final Four opponent, No. 1 overall seed UConn, which clinched its semifinal spot Sunday afternoon.

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Not a problem, according to Staley.

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“We didn’t control the controllables,” she said Monday after No. 1 South Carolina’s 25-point win over No. 3 TCU.

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How SEC title game loss sent USC to Sacramento

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Had South Carolina beaten Texas in the SEC championship game in Greenville earlier this month, the Gamecocks almost certainly would’ve clinched the third No. 1 seed and preferential placement in the Fort Worth (Texas) Regional.

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But that didn’t happen: The Longhorns routed the Gamecocks 78-61 on March 8, triggering a domino effect based on campus geography that sent UConn (Fort Worth), UCLA (Sacramento) and Texas (Fort Worth) to their closer regional sites, in that order. And USC, as Staley put it, “got bumped.”

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A loss meant a cross-country flight to Sacramento, which is roughly 2,700 miles and three time zones away from Columbia … and, if USC advanced, an accelerated turnaround from a Monday Elite Eight game to a Friday Final Four game.

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Those plans are now reality. Staley said her program’s embracing it as the Gamecocks prepare for their sixth consecutive Final Four.

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“We lost to Texas in the SEC Tournament,” she said. “We knew we were going to get bumped. So you just take the hit. You take the hit, and you just keep on going.”

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Players embrace time-zone, travel changes

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It’s not like South Carolina hasn’t taken long road trips before (see: Paris in 2024). But nearly two weeks away from home obviously present some extra logistical and recovery challenges for the Gamecocks (35-3).

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Last year, USC made a brief pit stop in Columbia between weekends in Birmingham, Alabama (regional round) and Tampa, Florida (Final Four). Same for 2024 in Albany, New York (regional round) and Cleveland, Ohio (Final Four).

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In 2023, South Carolina played on a shorter turnaround after getting assigned a Monday Elite Eight game as the No. 1 overall seed — but that game was played in Greenville, allowing a trip back home before flying to the Final Four in Dallas.

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Staley credited sports performance coach Molly Binetti and other support staffers for creating a plan for time-zone adjustment and keeping players engaged during a more unique, long-term travel arrangement come 2026.

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The Gamecocks have bought in, she said. USC’s players usually wouldn’t leap at the concept of taking a long walk on an off day — most would prefer to hang out in their rooms and “lie in bed, like, all day,” Staley joked.

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But they got their steps in around their downtown Sacramento hotel this week, soaking up California rays and acclimating to West Coast time.

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“They’re listening more now during this stage of our season than any other time, because they want to win and they want to lock in, which is good and helpful,” Staley said. “If we were just playing in any other tournament throughout the season, they would not want to go on the long walks. They would not.”

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USC flewto Sacramento on March 25. By the time South Carolina tips off against UConn Friday, the team will’ve been away from home for nine days away.

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USC’s plane took off from Sacramento around 11:30 p.m. local time Monday and arrived in Phoenix around 1 a.m. local time (after losing an hour going from Pacific to Mountain time), according to flight logs and social media posts.

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The Gamecocks, of course, are rooting for their stay to be 12 days, which would also cover a theoretical Saturday practice/media day, Sunday national championship game against Texas or UCLA and a very happy flight home Monday.

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None of that happens if USC doesn’t beat UConn on Friday, a tall task considering the Huskies enter the semifinal at 38-0. But if South Carolina loses, don’t expect any travel or logistics-related gripes from Staley — or any of her players.

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“I have no complaints,” Staley said.