Dawn Staley makes her feelings known on Te-Hina Paopao and her teammates: "It's a privilege"

The South Carolina women's basketball team, coming off their national championship victory last season, is off to a solid start this year too. For Dawn Staley, she has Te-Hina Paopao and other players to thank for keeping up that momentum.

Staley reflected on the team's performance following their game against Iowa State on Nov. 28. She pointed out several players worthy of praise, but highlighted Paopao as someone who has went the extra mile in making the right plays whenever she's on the court.

"It is a privilege to coach Pao," Staley said. "That's one; two, when you have three pretty darn good point guards, like, you really can't go wrong. Pao, Raven now, Maddie, they do a great job at picking up where the other one left off, or if the other one is not having, you know, that type of game. You know they can, they can kind of see it and feel it for each other.

"But Pao, I mean, her defense, her defense was more impressive to me than her ability to facilitate what I've seen her facilitate before. I've never seen her pick up 94 feet time and time again when we subbed out Raven, that's usually Raven's job to do that, but Pao made a concerted effort to do it in practice the last two days."

What's next for Dawn Staley and South Carolina

Dawn Staley and No. 4 South Carolina are 6-1 after seven games this season. The Gamecocks remain dynamic as a team that can play on both sides of the court at a high level.

On offense, they score 77.3 points on 44.1% shooting from the field and 36% from beyond the arc. On defense, they give up just 54.4 points to their opponents with shooting accuracies of 34.9% overall and 33.3% from downtown.

South Carolina is also active in crashing the glass, forcing turnovers and making steals and blocks. They grab 45.4 rebounds, force 18.4 turnovers and making 17 stocks (steals and blocks combined) per game.

Leading the charge for the Gamecocks have been Te-Hina Paopao, Chloe Kitts and MiLaysia Fulwiley among others.

Paopao is putting up 13.1 points, three assists, 2.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals on 51.3% shooting from the field and 50% from three. Kitts is averaging 10.7 points and 8.3 rebounds, while Fulwiley has numbers of 10.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and two assists per game off the bench.

After today's matchup against Purdue, Dawn Staley and No. 4 South Carolina will host No. 13 Duke at the Colonial Life Arena on Dec. 5 at 9 p.m. ET.