It was another frustrating night for Coach Yo and her Ole Miss Rebels. The Rebels lost their second straight game, falling to 8–6 in the SEC. And this one was especially tough to swallow. A 37-point defeat to South Carolina highlighted just how wide the gap looked on the night. The Gamecocks controlled things from start to finish, and Madina Okot’s performance was so impressive that it even earned her a few Stephen Curry comparisons.

Okot finished the night with 17 points on 6-of-14 shooting, along with 10 rebounds and 4 blocks. Now, we expect numbers like 10 boards and 4 blocks from a 6-foot-6 center. But what we don’t usually expect is for a paint-dominant big to be just as dangerous from deep. That’s exactly what happened against Ole Miss, as Okot knocked down three shots from beyond the arc.

“When I saw her start making threes, I was like, it’s over for us,” Coach Yo said in the postgame press conference. “You know what I mean? It’s one thing to have to battle with her around the basket, but she started looking like Steph Curry. I was like, we might as well pack it up, you know.

She continued, “I just think they did a great job giving her confidence. I always thought she was super talented. I remember at Mississippi State, I was scared straight about her. It makes a difference when you’re around the level of type players she’s around. When you’re around championship players you start to move like that and embody that identity. And I think she’s doing that. She always had all of this skill, it’s just really being brought out because now she’s with some really good players.”

Comparing her with the greatest shooter of all time might be a stretch, because when Okot was at Mississippi State, she was never known as a three-point shooter. In fact, she hadn’t even attempted a single three, let alone make one. But this season has been a completely different story. Just three days ago, against Alabama, she set a career high for threes made, only to top it in her next outing.

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After not making a single three-pointer last season, Okot has already knocked down 8 on just 15 attempts this year and now has the second-best three-point percentage on South Carolina’s roster at .533. The only player ahead of her is Alicia Tournebize at .667, and as Coach Staley pointed out, the two have been staying after practice together, putting in extra work from beyond the arc.

“We work them pretty much every day,” Staley said. “…You want to put players in positions where they’re comfortable and it fits. Some people can be comfortable taking threes, but they’re not accurate. For Madina, she’s pretty accurate. She was accurate when she first got here, and I didn’t really think anything of it, besides, it’s a big that wants to shoot threes.”

“I’m getting more confident… I’m just being me,” Okot said when asked about her three-point shooting. She has backed that up with results. Her late three-pointer against Texas cut the margin to four with under four minutes left. Against Ole Miss, her first trey made it 27–20 in the second quarter, her second stretched the lead to 41–23 just before halftime, and by the time she knocked down her third, South Carolina was cruising at 71–37.

Madina Okot’s standout performances have once again helped establish South Carolina as a genuine contender, and as usual, plenty of credit goes to Coach Staley for creating the kind of environment where players like Okot can grow and flourish, something even Coach Yo pointed out. As for the three-pointers, you can bet there are more coming from Okot in the future.

Dawn Staley’s Decision to Bench Madina Okot Pays Off

January wasn’t easy for Okot. She struggled to find her form against Texas, Coppin State, and Oklahoma, shooting around 32% from the field in the Coppin State and Oklahoma games. Coach Staley responded by moving her out of the starting lineup, and the adjustment has paid off for South Carolina.

Okot came off the bench against Vanderbilt, Auburn, and Texas A&M, and she struggled to make an impact in most of those games, aside from the Vanderbilt matchup, where she scored 17 points. But the story took a dramatic turn when Staley reinstated her in the starting lineup against her former school, Mississippi State. Something clicked, and from that night on, Okot didn’t look back.

Okot responded with a double-double against the Bulldogs, putting up 10 points and 10 rebounds, and followed it with a 10-point, 16-rebound performance against Tennessee, and at that point, fans knew she was back. “It’s normal for players to go through what I’m going through, or what I went through,” Okot said after the Tennessee game. “I’m just so grateful for my teammates and the coaching staff for being there for me. I needed the break to come off the bench. … I feel like I had too much pressure, and (Staley) had to take it off of me for some time.”

Her run of double-doubles didn’t stop there. She needed only a half against the Alabama Crimson Tide to grab another, putting up 13 points and 10 rebounds in the first half and ultimately finishing with 16 points, 16 rebounds, and a career high 4 blocks. Now, she has followed that up by registering her 18th double-double of the season against Ole Miss, and her hot streak shows no signs of slowing down.

Sometimes stepping back is the best way to move forward, and that’s exactly the approach Staley took with Madina Okot — a decision now paying off for both player and program. The Gamecocks are peaking at the perfect time, and that long-awaited shot at revenge against UConn suddenly doesn’t seem so far-fetched.

What about you? Do you think the Gamecocks are built to win the championship this season? Let us know in the comments down below!