The South Carolina Gamecocks (15-0, 3-0 SEC) are off to a spotless start to the 2022-23 NCAA season, making it through a tough non-conference schedule unscathed and carrying that success through the beginning of SEC play. The defending champions have looked perhaps even more impressive than when they went 36-2 and won their second national title. They are a well-oiled basketball machine that the rest of the country is still trying to figure out.
The Gamecocks’ recent success under head coach Dawn Staley has been largely characterized by dominant physical play, led by 2023’s presumed No. 1 overall draft pick, center Aliyah Boston. It’s reflected in the statistics; no team in the country defends and rebounds like South Carolina, and it’s made the No. 1 Gamecocks favorites to successfully defend their title come March.
There’s more to South Carolina than elite frontcourt play, though. Senior guard Zia Cooke, who joined the Gamecocks along with Boston as a highly-touted recruit in 2019, has been a fixture in South Carolina’s starting lineup since her very first collegiate game, and thus has made an impact on a program that has gone a combined 108-8 in the past three-plus seasons.
Cooke, a 5-foot-9 product of Rogers High School in Toledo, Ohio, quickly developed a…
