No. 3 South Carolina’s Dawn Staley expressed caution when previewing the matchup against surprisingly undefeated No. 9 TCU led by star guard and transfer Hailey van Lith

Dawn Staley and No. 3 South Carolina are set for an early season heavyweight clash against No. 9 TCU on Sunday in Fort Worth, and the head coach has said she’s ready for the challenge to come.

The Horned Frogs are off to a perfect 9-0 start thanks to twin 19.4 points per game averages of star transfers Hailey van Lith and Sedona Prince. Van Lith transferred after a shaky season with LSU – coming in the wake of successful campaigns at Louisville – and has immediately hit the ground running for TCU.

Staley spoke of her experience facing the guard in the past and how she’ll look to preview the matchup.

“Well, we know Hailey [Van Lith], for one. [We] played against her when she was at Louisville, played against when she was at LSU,” Staley admitted.

“She’s more, like, in the Louisville…she’s in that mode to where she’s calling on to do a lot of things for their basketball team, so you got to go back and look at the Louisville scout and see the types of things that we did to have an impact on her inability to get clean looks,” she continued.

“I mean, they’re all very good experienced transfers, so we got to take them for what we’ve seen them doing in TCU’s system.”

Prince joined TCU last season from Oregon but has taken her game to another level this year playing on a competitive team with tournament aspirations.

When discussing the Horned Frogs’ interior, Staley complicated more than just Prince and laid out her team’s rough game plan. “[It’s] probably very different in that [we’ll] probably play some zone,” she said.

“I mean, there’s the bigs… you got to chop bigs down. You got to make them work for every catch, every touch over a 40-minute period.”

“Our depth really has to have an impact on this particular game, so we’ll concentrate on doing that. But know that they have much more than Sedona Prince.”

TCU has reeled off recent victories over two top-10 opponents in North Carolina State and Notre Dame. However, Staley’s South Carolina will prove to be the stiffest challenge.

TCU coach Mark Campbell is welcoming the opportunity. “We are excited about the opportunity to play and compete against the defending national champions,” he said.

“This will be the best team to ever come to Fort Worth for a nonconference game, and I know the crowd and atmosphere will be magical.”