To those outside South Carolina women’s basketball, the storyline is obvious, and enticing. Without A’ja Wilson, the Gamecocks aren’t the same team, and it showed Sunday as Dawn Staley’s group was blown out by then-No. 9 Maryland 85-61.
Even Maryland coach Brenda Frese made reference to it in her postgame press conference.
“Obviously, I understand,” Frese said. “We’ve been through it in our program. You talk about losing a tremendous player like A’ja, it takes time for that next wave of players to be able to step up and accept that responsibility.