Kamilla Cardoso embarrasses South Carolina but sting will be fleeting

Kamilla Cardoso embarrassed herself and she embarrassed her team.

Fortunately for No. 1 South Carolina, the sting it's feeling right now will be short-lived.

Cardoso will miss the first game of the NCAA Tournament after being ejected for fighting in what was an ugly, ugly moment in South Carolina’s win over LSU in the SEC tournament title game Sunday afternoon. While losing their best player would be the death knell for most teams, the Gamecocks are not most teams.

They are undefeated this season, with four of those wins coming when Cardoso was out, either with Brazil’s national team or recovering from national team duty. South Carolina won all four games by double digits, including an 18-point win over then-No. 11 Connecticut.

And because the Gamecocks will be the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, their opponent for the game Cardoso will miss will not exactly pose a threat. Yes, there’s far more parity in the women’s game than ever before, but let’s remember that since 1985, only three No. 16 seeds have upset a No. 1 in either the men’s or women’s tournament.

That’s more than 250 games between No. 1 and No. 16 seeds, and all of three wins for the upstarts. I like South Carolina’s odds — especially given the Gamecocks will be playing at home.

Cardoso will miss the game, South Carolina will roll and then everything will be back to normal.

This is not meant to diminish what Cardoso did. She is fortunate Flau’jae Johnson didn’t get hurt when Cardoso shoved her to the floor. She’s equally fortunate no one else did in the chaos that followed. Cardoso deserved to be ejected and she deserves whatever criticism comes her way from coach Dawn Staley and her teammates.

“I would like to extend my sincerest apologies for my actions during today’s game,” Cardoso said in a post on X. “My behavior was not representative of who I am as a person or the South Carolina program, and I deeply regret any discomfort or inconvenience it may have caused.

“I take full responsibility for my actions and assure you that I am committed to conducting myself with the utmost respect and sportsmanship in the future,” she added.

But emotions run high in sports. Even when referees haven’t let the game get out of hand, as they did Sunday, players get heated, words are exchanged and, sometimes, punches and shoves are, too.

At last year’s Ohio Valley Conference men’s tournament, three players were ejected after a dust-up that left one player bleeding. Just last month, eight players were suspended after a brawl broke out in the postgame handshake line following a game between Texas A&M-Commerce and Incarnate Word. The handshake line!

And if you think female athletes are some dainty flowers who say excuse me as they’re driving to the hoop, never say an unkind word and keep their elbows to themselves, you haven’t been paying attention. Women are every bit as competitive as men and every bit as likely to lose their cool.

Because they’re athletes every bit as much as men are and these things, unfortunately, sometimes happen in sports.

“What you saw were two highly competitive teams trying to win a conference championship. And they did not handle it well,” Staley said after the game. “Our players didn’t, their players didn’t. I’ll take responsibility for what happened for our side of it."

What’s most unfortunate about the incident, besides everything, is that less than 24 hours earlier, Cardoso was the toast of college basketball. She’d made the first 3-pointer of her career at the most opportune of times, giving South Carolina an improbable buzzer-beater win over Tennessee that put the Gamecocks in the title game and preserved their unbeaten streak.

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Now all anyone will remember about Cardoso from this weekend is that she couldn’t control her anger, losing her cool and taking it out on players (much) smaller than she is. Her split-second of impulsivity spoiled what should have been a triumphant moment for Staley and South Carolina, their eighth SEC title in the last 10 years.

And she has no one to blame but herself for the reputational whiplash.

Fortunately for Cardoso, and more so South Carolina, the damage will be short-lived. They will have to hear the brawl rehashed and Cardoso's behavior analyzed ad nauseum for at least the next week, more likely two until the tournament begins.

But sports, sometimes to its own detriment, rarely holds grudges. Win, and all will be forgiven. Win the title, and all will be forgotten.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.