CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It's nothing new to see cameras follow the No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks women's basketball team wherever they travel.
The sight of the coaches and players rolling into towns and cities has become commonplace for the program under Dawn Staley, who just led the team to its third National Championship since 2017 last April.
On Sunday, South Carolina will lead off the Ally Tipoff, a now two-year-old event put on by the Charlotte Sports Foundation at Spectrum Center.
The foundation must know something because they booked South Carolina's matchup against NC State before the two programs met in last year's Final Four in Cleveland.
Now they'll run it back in Uptown.
"It's great. Any time you can put two top ten teams together in a city that loves basketball, and surely they love women's basketball, that's the tip of the iceberg," Staley said. "Our game is growing and our game demands it. We're hoping to put on a good show."
The Gamecocks fended off a pesky Michigan squad in their season opener in Las Vegas. The Wolfpack beat ETSU, 80-55.
"Our first game we didn't play with the habits that we formed from June until now. Hopefully we get that out of our system," Staley said. "NC State, I think they've gotten better."
South Carolina and NC State tip off at 3 p.m., Sunday on ESPN. Iowa and Virginia Tech will follow on ESPN2.
Contact Nick Carboni at ncarboni@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.