Do you enjoy watching basketball played at its absolute peak? If so, Sunday’s women’s college basketball game between No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks and No. 2 Stanford Cardinal should do more than settle your basketball appetite.
The clash of the NCAA’s best will check off many boxes that include the future stars of the WNBA, some of the top recruits from recent high school classes and better yet, a showdown between two teams that recently reached college basketball’s mountaintop.
We dive into it all ahead of Sunday’s potential national championship preview. Here’s what to watch for, a brief history of the two and how to watch.
History
If you feel like you’ve seen a Stanford-South Carolina matchup lately, it’s because you have. When the Cardinal and Gamecocks take the court at Maples Pavilion, it will be the third matchup between the two teams in as many seasons.
Back on April 2, 2021, the two met in the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament with Stanford narrowly edging out South Carolina, 66-65, in one of the wildest college basketball endings in recent history. The Cardinal would beat Arizona days later in the national championship game.
The Gamecocks got revenge the following season, albeit in a December 21 non-conference game, when they came back from down 18 points to defeat the Cardinal, 65-61, in Columbia. South Carolina would go on to win the national championship months later.
National Championship Pedigree
Between the two squads, there are a total of 15 players who could appear in Sunday’s contest that were a part of either Stanford’s 2020-21 title team or South Carolina’s 2021-22 championship roster.
On top of that, both national championship-winning head coaches, Dawn Staley and Tara VanDerveer, remain on the sidelines.
Upcoming WNBA Stars
What makes this matchup special is that the players who are college basketball’s creme of the crop will be the ones competing. That is South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston and Stanford’s Haley Jones— the projected top-two picks in the 2023 WNBA Draft.
Both stars are as decorated as they come.
Each has national championships, Final Four Most Outstanding Player awards and AP First-Team All-America honors on their resume, Boston also is a Naismith Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.
Prediction
If I had to guess, there won’t be many college basketball games this season that will be as good or as anticipated as this one. The two teams have familiarity with one another, have two of the best coaches in the sport and feature elite players at the top of their rosters.
That being said, it just feels like the Gamecocks have the edge here. Stanford’s usual advantage is size, but that gets erased vs. a big and physical Gamecocks team. South Carolina returns nearly every important player (four starters and the national player of the year, Aliyah Boston) from last season’s championship squad and has the cohesion advantage over Stanford.
Even with the game taking place on the Cardinal’s campus, I think South Carolina overcomes the crowd and wins this one by close to double digits.
How to Watch
Sunday’s November 20 showdown between Stanford and South Carolina will take place at Maples Pavillion in Stanford, CA. You can follow the game live on ABC at 3:00 p.m. ET.
