PHOENIX — Twenty.
That’s the number that briefly taunts South Carolina guard Raven Johnson when she allows herself a second to think about what happened a year ago against UConn. The number initially served as a source of motivation until the new season started.
“I just remember getting beat by 20, honestly,” Johnson said Thursday when asked about the 2025 national championship game, in which South Carolina fell to UConn by 23.
But as Johnson says it, she releases it. She doesn’t dwell on the past. She shifts the conversation to the present.
“We got new players in,” Johnson continued. “This is their first time experiencing the Final Four. I think coach [Dawn] Staley, the other coaches are doing a good job of keeping the main thing the main thing and keeping us ready when the moment is here.”
As fate would have it, the Gamecocks have to get through the Huskies to return to the national championship game for the fourth time in five years. It’ll be the ultimate test of mental, physical and emotional resolve for both teams.
And yet, Friday’s meeting in the Final Four isn’t about exacting revenge for a year ago.
No, Johnson said the Huskies are merely a speed bump the Gamecocks need to plow over to get one step closer to their overarching goal: winning their third championship in five years.
“I wouldn’t say chip on the shoulder,” Johnson said. “We have one goal, that’s to get to the national championship. They’re in our way of getting to the national championship. I think that’s how we’re thinking of it.
“It won’t matter if they were UConn, if they were Benedict. It don’t matter. They’re in our way.”
That’s not just a sound bite Johnson provided for the media to run wild with. She truly feels and embodies it. She’s like a racehorse with blinders up. Her leadership this season has been rooted in moving forward, not looking back, and Johnson knows that the Gamecocks will go as far as she can lead them.
“When it’s time to elevate in regards to winning,” Staley said, “she takes on this … narrow-mindedness of only seeing things that will help winning.”
For example, when sophomore Joyce Edwards was dwelling on the Sacramento rims, saying “they seemed tight,” it was Johnson who tilted her head up, stared down the rims and corrected her teammate.
“The rims are great,” Johnson told Edwards. “You got to think positive.”
The power of positivity can’t be overstated. And Johnson is a bulb of brightness for South Carolina’s locker room. She takes a page out of Staley’s book, saying the habits built in practice and behind closed doors are the ones that show on the sport’s biggest stage.
After Johnson’s remarks, Edwards went on to score 24 points on 50 percent shooting in South Carolina’s Elite Eight win against TCU.
“It is those type of instances where she probably would have never said that years ago,” Staley said of Johnson. “I see more and more of that this particular Final Four because, one, they’re younger, they don’t know. They need her guidance. She’s only going by her winning compass. She’s going to point them in the right direction.”
This Gamecocks squad is not the same one that got smoked a year ago.
Three players from last year’s team went pro. MiLaysia Fulwiley, South Carolina’s sixth woman last season, transferred to LSU, and Chloe Kitts suffered a season-ending injury during an October practice.
The Gamecocks welcomed Florida State transfer Ta’Niya Latson, who led the nation in scoring a year ago, and Mississippi State transfer Madina Okot. They added French big Alicia Tournebize midseason.
Edwards leaped into a larger role, averaging more points, rebounds, steals and blocks per game than she did as a freshman.
A constant, though, continues to be Johnson.
Johnson has been to the Final Four in each of her five seasons at South Carolina. She’s won two national championships and hopes she’s not done quite yet.
She knows what it takes to be successful here.
“The lights are bright here. I just say be yourself,” Johnson advised. “When your number’s called, be ready. I say the room for marginal error is very small. I think it starts in practice. Bring your practice habits to the game and you’ll be good.”
