GREENVILLE, S.C. — No. 1 South Carolina has a system for cutting down nets.
The Gamecocks have had plenty of practice: Since coach Dawn Staley arrived on campus in 2008, they’ve racked up SEC conference titles and Final Four appearances and a pair of national championships. So when they sealed a third consecutive trip to the Final Four on Monday with an 86–75 win over No. 2 Maryland, extending an unbeaten season, they knew just what to do.
The process is overseen by Freddy Ready, the team’s director of player development, who has been with the program since 2002. True to his name, Ready is always prepared, and he noticed the need for structure after the Gamecocks’ second conference title, in ‘15. (“We had a snafu,” he explains. If you let people cut willy-nilly, sure enough, the net will lose the structural integrity needed to wear it as a celebratory necklace. That’s a rookie mistake. Under Staley, this program rarely makes mistakes, and it almost never repeats them.) So Ready now stands by the ladder, steadying players and team personnel as they climb, and gives them explicit instructions on just where to cut.
