Dawn Staley drops a 3-word comment ahead of the South Carolina-Arkansas matchup

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley had to rally her Gamecocks fans ahead of their matchup against Arkansas (9-18, 2-10 SEC), following their loss to No. 5 UConn on Sunday. To do so, Staley dropped a 3-word tweet on Thursday morning to get fans fired up for the evening game.

"IT’S GAME DAY!!!" Staley tweeted.

The No. 6 Gamecocks are coming off their third loss of the season, falling to the Huskies 58-87 at home on College GameDay. They previously dropped games against No. 2 Texas earlier this month and No. 3 UCLA in November.

This is the first time Dawn Staley's squad has lost three times in a season since 2020-21, and they will look to bounce back on Thursday against the bottom-tier SEC opponent Arkansas.

The Razorbacks have only won two conference games this campaign and are on a four-game losing streak coming into the South Carolina matchup at Colonial Life Arena.

Despite some recent struggles, the Gamecocks are still firmly in the hunt for another SEC regular-season title. With an 11-1 record, they sit in second place in the league standings, behind only Texas (12-1).

---

Dawn Staley confident season's not over, team can still succeed

While the Gamecocks achieved glory in the past few seasons without many setbacks, Dawn Staley remains positive that this team can still succeed despite the recent hiccups.

The three-time national champion coach spoke with reporters after Wednesday's practice as she reflected on the loss to UConn and how the team can move forward.

"You take a loss, you have a tendency to think that everything's broken. Everything's not broken — it really isn't," Staley said. "We just got to get back to our good habits, playing the way we need to play." [1:01]

"This is a part of our journey. The journey last year didn't have a blemish as far as a loss, but there were blemishes — they were just not in the form of a loss.

"It's part of it. We got to embrace the good, the bad, the ugly of whatever journey it is. We're still in it, and everything that we want to accomplish is right there in front of us."

Beyond Arkansas, the Gamecocks have three SEC games remaining before they start their postseason run to defend their NCAA championship.

They play two road games — against Vanderbilt (19-7, 6-6) on Feb. 23 and Ole Miss (17-8, 8-5) on Feb. 27 — before their final regular season game at home against No. 14 Kentucky (20-4, 9-3).