Women's Final Four Semifinals today
American Airlines Center in Dallas • Final: 5 p.m. Sunday (ESPN)
Stanford vs. South Carolina, 6:30 p.m., ESPN2
Stanford (32-5, No. 2 seed)
Final Four history: The Cardinal is in the Final Four for the 12th time and has won two national championships (1990, 1992). It returns to the national semifinals after a two-year hiatus.
How it got here: Stanford has overcome deficits of seven points or more in five of its past six games. The Cardinal trailed Notre Dame by as many as 16 points in the Lexington regional final last weekend.
Coach: Tara VanDerveer is a four-time national coach of the year and a 14-time Pac-12 coach of the year. She won her 1,000th career game earlier this season.
Player to watch: Sophomore reserve forward Alanna Smith had 19 points off the bench against Notre Dame. She is from Australia, and her parents have made the 16-hour flight to be at the Final Four.
South Carolina (31-4, No. 1 seed)
Final Four history: The Gamecocks are in the Final Four for the second time. In their only other appearance, the Gamecocks lost by one point to Notre Dame in the 2015 semifinals.
How it got here: South Carolina has had to reinvent itself after losing senior center Alaina Coates to an ankle injury in the SEC tournament.
Coach: Dawn Staley and VanDerveer go way back. When Staley played at Virginia, the Cavaliers lost to VanDerveer's Cardinal in the 1990 and 1992 national semifinals. The first of Staley's three Olympic gold medals as a player came in 1996, when VanDerveer was the U.S. coach.
Player to watch: Kaela Davis, the Most Outstanding Player of the Stockton regional, is appearing in her first Final Four after transferring from Georgia Tech.
