Is this Dawn Staley’s best South Carolina team yet? — Kellie Harper talks Tennessee opener — Must-click women’s basketball links

As I watched Tuesday night’s South Carolina victory over N.C. State, I couldn’t help but think of Dawn Staley’s team less in terms of the opponents it will face this year, most of whom it will beat convincingly, but rather what the true ceiling of this team is.

After all, a young group went out and largely dominated a top-five opponent on the road in its very first game. The only times N.C. State got back into it came when the Gamecocks suffered some combination of offensive drought and mistakes, the former not significant enough to keep them from shooting 49 percent from the field, the latter failing to let the Wolfpack get close enough to turn the fourth quarter into much of a tense affair.