This is how the teams that will play in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 in Fresno match up:
|
Stanford |
South Carolina |
Duke |
St John's |
| Points per game |
76.7 |
58.5 |
75.4 |
62.0 |
| Scoring margin |
+22.1 |
+4.4 |
+20.0 |
+6.1 |
| Field goal % |
0.457 |
0.398 |
0.477 |
0.415 |
| 3-pointers per game |
5.4 |
4.8 |
4.5 |
2.2 |
| 3-point % |
0.313 |
0.313 |
0.379 |
0.286 |
| Free throw % |
0.764 |
0.561 |
0.677 |
0.689 |
| Rebounds per game |
44.4 |
37.1 |
40.4 |
36.5 |
| Rebounding margin |
+10.6 |
+3.0 |
+7.5 |
+0.6 |
| Assists per game |
16.7 |
10.6 |
16.7 |
11.6 |
| Turnovers per game |
12.8 |
16.1 |
17.1 |
13.9 |
| Assist/turnover ratio |
1.31 |
0.66 |
0.98 |
0.84 |
| Steals per game |
6.7 |
7.2 |
12.6 |
8.8 |
| Blocks per game |
4.7 |
3.5 |
6.0 |
4.1 |
| Win-loss record |
33-1, 18-0 |
25-9, 10-6 |
26-5, 15-1 |
24-9, 13-3 |
| RPI |
2 |
32 |
10 |
11 |
| Schedule strength |
9 |
43 |
33 |
5 |
South Carolina Gamecocks
The Gamecocks earned an at-large bid to the tourney with their fourth place finish in the SEC behind Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia. They advanced to the Sweet Sixteen by trouncing #14 East Michigan 80-48 in the first round and upsetting #4 Purdue 72-61 on its home court in the second round.
South Carolina has advanced this far in the tourney twice before – most recently in 2002. This will be first time that Dawn Staley, in her 4th season as head coach at South Carolina, has taken a team to the Sweet Sixteen, although she has been there often as a player. She was a member of the University of Virginia teams that lost to Stanford in the Final Four in 1990 and 1992.
South Carolina is a small guard-oriented team that has relied on its swarming defense to slow down games and keep scores low most of this season. They've allowed their opponents just 50.7 points a game (fourth-best in the nation) and 21.5% on three-pointers (second-best in the nation).
But their offense has been hot too in the NCAA tourney. They've shot 51.3% in the first two rounds, way above their season average of 39.8%. All the Gamecocks contribute on offense. Their top five scorers average from 7.2 to 11.0 points per game. Their top scorer in the first round had 12 points. Markeshia Grant busted out with 21 points against Purdue, and Ieasia Walker contributed 17.
South Carolina has a deep bench — nine players average at least 11.5 minutes per game and two more play eight minutes.
Here are South Carolina's 2011-2012 statistics, roster and game notes. Their probable starters are:
- #5, 5'6" senior guard Markeshia Grant is the top scorer with 11.0 points per game and the only one that averages more than one three-pointer. She takes half her shots from beyond the arc and makes 35% of them for average of 1.8 per game.
- #3, 5'8" junior guard Ieasia Walker leads the offense for the Gamecocks. She averages 3.2 assists per game and has a fairly good assist/turnover ratio of 1.2. She averages 1.8 steals and 8.0 points per game.
- #11, 5'8" senior guard La'Keisha Sutton shares the point guard duty with Walker. She averages 10.4 points, 2.7 assists with an assist/turnover ratio of 0.87, and 1.3 steals per game.
- #12, 6'0" junior forward Charenee Stephens averages 5.0 rebounds and 4.9 points per game.
- #22, 5'9" senior guard Courtney Newton averages 1.6 rebounds and 0.7 points per game.
South Carolina's best rebounders come off the bench. 6'0" freshman forward
Aleighsa Welch averages 5.9 rebounds per game and 6'0" junior forward
Ashley Bruner averages 5.2.
Duke Blue Devils
The Blue Devils earned an at-large bid to the tourney by winning the ACC regular-season title. They advanced to the Sweet Sixteen by crushing #15 Samford 82-47 in the first round and defeating #7 Vanderbilt 96-80 on its home court in the second round.
The Blue Devils have often gone to the big dance, but they've never gone all the way. They were the national runner-up in 1999 and 2006. Last season they made it to the Elite 8, where they lost to Connecticut.
This is the best offensive team head coach Joanne P. McCallie has had in her five years at Duke. They shoot 47.7 % from the field (second best in the nation) and 37.9% from beyond the arc (fifth best in the nation). They've been red-hot in the tournament, scoring 82 points on 51.9% shooting against Samford and then 96 on 65.6 percent shooting against Vandy.
Duke has eight players in its regular rotation. They lost a valuable member of the team in early February when sophomore forward Richa Jackson tore her ACL. Their freshman phenom, center Elizabeth Williams, was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her right leg a week ago, but she's playing in the tourney.
Here are Duke's 2011-2012 statistics, roster and game notes. Their probable starters are:
- #1, 6'3" freshman center Elizabeth Williams is the fourth best shot-blocker in the nation with 3.7 per game. She is also Duke's top scorer (14.2 ppg) and rebounder (8.1 rpg). She had a triple-double this season of 16 rebounds, 12 blocks and 18 points. The stress fracture may be affecting her performance. Although she played 25 minutes in each of the first two rounds of the tourney, she averaged 12 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks.
- #12, 5'11" sophomore guard Chelsea Gray runs the show for Duke. She gets her own points when needed – she's the second best scorer with 12.2 per game – but she's at her best making her teammates look great. She averages 6.2 assists with a fine assist/turnover ratio of 1.79. She also averages 2.7 steals and 5.0 rebounds per game. She's had three assists/points double-doubles this season and a triple-double of 11 rebounds, 13 assists and 14 points.
- #32, 6'1" sophomore guard Trisha Liston is Duke's three-point specialist. She takes almost half her shots from beyond the arc and makes 45% of them for average of 1.7 per game.
- #33, 6'3" sophomore guard/forward Haley Peters
averages 11.1 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.
- #3, 5'9" senior guard Shay Selby averages 6.2 points and 2.9 rebounds per game.
St. John's Red Storm
The Red Storm earned an at-large bid to the tourney with their third place finish in the Big East behind Notre Dame and Connecticut. They advanced to the Sweet Sixteen by winning two very close games in the final seconds. They squeaked past #14 Creighton 69-67 in the first round and past #6 Oklahoma 74-70 on its home court in the second round.
This is St. John's third consecutive trip to the NCAA tourney, but the first time they've advanced to the Sweet Sixteen
Offense is getting it done for the Red Storm. They have a multitude of scoring sources with four players that average double-digit scoring. Almost all their scoring comes from within the arc — no player averages as much as one three-pointer per game.
St John's has gotten the job done in the first two rounds of the tourney with a seven-player rotation — the starters shown below plus 5'9" sophomore guard Keylantra Langley and 6'2" sophomore forward Mary Nwachukwu.
Here are St. John's 2011-2012 statistics, roster and game notes. Their probable starters are:
- #35, 6'1" junior guard Shenneika Smith is the Red Storm's leading scorer (12.7 ppg), rebounder (6.5 rpg) and shot blocker (1.2 bpg).
- #5, 5'7" junior guard Nadirah McKenith runs St. John's offense. She averages 4.7 assists per game with a good assist/turnover ratio of 1.44. She averages 12.3 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game. She's having a great run in the tourney — she hit the buzzer-beating game-winner against Creighton and the shot that proved to be the game winner against Oklahoma.
- #22, 5'8" junior guard Eugeneia McPherson averages 12.1 points, 2.0 assists, 1.8 steals and 3.1 rebounds per game.
- #3, 6'1" senior forward Da'Shena Stephens averages 11.0 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
- #2, 6'2" freshman forward Amber Thompson averages 6.2 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.
