Welcome to the wild ride of women’s March Madness. Make sure your seat belt is buckled for the Sweet 16 matchup between No. 1 seed South Carolina and No. 4 Maryland on Friday and enjoy the show.
If your seat belt isn’t buckled, the defending champion Gamecocks’ “Seat Belt Gang” will make sure you’re strapped up, just like how they lock down opponents. And now, the Seat Belt Gang has another member — Te-Hina Paopao.
“I’m just really proud to be part of the Seat Belt Gang,” Paopao said Sunday after recording a career-high four blocks and two steals in South Carolina’s 64-53 win over Indiana. The win advanced the team to its 11th consecutive Sweet 16, the second-longest streak in the nation.
The “Seat Belt Gang” is known for setting the tone defensively for the Gamecocks, who rank fifth in the nation in blocks per game (5.8) and opponents’ field goal percentage (35.2%). The group originated as a two-woman show made up of SEC All-Defensive Team guard Raven Johnson and Bree Hall, who regularly celebrate their defensive prowess by strapping imaginary seat belts across their chest after guarding the opposing team’s best player every night. But the duo is now a trio following Paopao’s induction into the exclusive club.
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“My girl showed she can play some defense,” Hall said after the game.
Johnson added, “She’s a member of the Seat Belt Gang. Me and (Hall) was telling her that. … If she brings that all the time, nobody can stop that.’
How did the Seat Belt Gang originate?
The ‘Seat Belt Gang’ originated in South Carolina, not on the basketball court, but on the football field. Former Gamecocks defensive backs Jaycee Horn and Israel Mukuamu came up with the seat-belt celebration during a walk-though ahead of a matchup against LSU in the 2020 season. Horn said they debuted the hand-across-the-chest gesture during the game. ‘We played LSU that weekend. After the first stop I had, I pulled (the gesture) out. My trainer posted it on his Instagram and it took off from there,’ Horn recalled during an interview with ESPN last week. The celebration can be seen everywhere from Pop Warner, to the NFL, to the women’s March Madness tournament. (Horn was drafted with the No. 8 overall pick by the Carolina Panthers in 2021 and became one of the highest-paid NFL CBs earlier this month.)
Te-Hina Paopao’s defense doesn’t ‘get enough credit’
Paopao has been known for being a knock-down shooter throughout her career, which started in Oregon (2020-23) before she transferred to South Carolina last year. Paopao is averaging a career-high 44.8% from the field, but South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said she doesn’t think Paopao’s “defense gets enough credit.”
‘Pao’s defense was great. It was executed to a T,” Staley said on Sunday, following the win over No. 9 Indiana. ‘I thought she did a great job. We told her that in the locker room. I’m happy that we’re helping to complete Pao, because for the longest, her reputation is she can just flat-out shoot the ball. She’s a consummate point guard, and I don’t think her defense gets enough credit in the past two years that she’s been with us because it’s gotten better and better and better.’
Staley added, ‘We’re a culture of playing defense, and if you don’t play it, you stick out, and (Paopao) is not one that wants to stick out in that way.’
The Gamecocks will be tasked with slowing down No. 4 seed Maryland, which is coming off a 111-108 double-overtime win over No. 5 Alabama in the second-highest scoring game in women’s NCAA Tournament history.
‘They will shoot the 3-ball. They will drive it down your throats. They have some bigs that can command the paint,’ Staley said. ‘They play up and down. They get up and down the floor. They want the game in the 80s and 90s and 100s if they can.’
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