The South Carolina Gamecocks enter the 2025-26 season in an unfamiliar position.
Last April, the Gamecocks made it to the national championship game, but—for the first time under head coach Dawn Staley—came up short, losing to the UConn Huskies. Coming in second place isn’t something Staley’s South Carolina program is used to, and being the reigning NCAA Tournament runners-up comes with its own pressures; the Gamecocks will not only be expected to uphold their usual standard of excellence, but also to avenge last season’s loss.
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In typical Staley fashion, South Carolina was active in upgrading its roster via the transfer portal, successfully selling the program’s strong record of player development to one of the country’s most talented guards. Ta’Niya Latson, who had recently led Division I in scoring for the Florida State Seminoles, was looking for a new challenge, a place to grow and an opportunity to contend for a national championship—all things that South Carolina could offer her.
It’s easy to see how Latson might help the Gamecocks in their mission to win another title. For all the players who entered Staley’s program as recruits and left as professionals, she’s never coached a scorer quite like Latson, and it already seems written that the dynamic guard will be the next Gamecock drafted to the WNBA. Neither Latson nor Staley are the type to rest on their laurels, though, and as talented as Latson is, South Carolina will push her to be even better.
Honors and statistics
A McDonald’s All-American, Latson was ranked as the No. 1 guard (and the No. 14 player overall) in the recruiting class of 2022 by ESPN HoopGurlz. She quickly justified that ranking in her first collegiate season, averaging 21.3 points and 2.9 assists per game and earning National Freshman of the Year honors from the USBWA and WBCA.
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Latson built upon those numbers as a sophomore, averaging 21.4 points and 4.1 assists per game. As a junior, she was even more productive, posting averages of 25.2 points, 4.6 assists and 2.2 steals per game, and she was named a Second-Team All-American by the USBWA and Associated Press. Latson also earned All-ACC First Team honors for the third season in a row.
Entering her senior season, Latson is on watch lists for several national awards, including the Naismith Trophy, Wade Trophy and Ann Meyers Drysdale Award. She was also named to the Preseason All-American First Team by the AP and was voted to the Preseason All-SEC First-Team by conference coaches.
Latson out to prove she’s more than a scorer
For a player who has led the country in scoring, been named an All-American and seemed destined for WNBA success since her very first NCAA game, how much can there be left to prove at the collegiate level?
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According to Latson herself, quite a bit. She’ll be the first to admit that, in spite of her gaudy scoring numbers at Florida State, she wasn’t the most well-rounded player, and that’s something she hopes to change at South Carolina.
“My first two years, I did not take the weight room serious,” Latson told Sports Illustrated. She also admitted she would “take reps off” on defense. She made that decision partially because of the energy she was expending on offense, but also because, as the Seminoles’ unquestioned star, she could afford to coast a bit more than her teammates.
Latson knows that won’t fly at South Carolina, but that’s part of why she transferred there. She wants Staley to challenge her, and the Hall of Famer has been happy to oblige, imploring Latson to defend more with her body than her hands. Thanks to a newfound commitment to weights and conditioning, Latson has had no problem making that adjustment.
“She picks up on things quickly, quickly, quickly,” raved Staley. “We’re getting a seasoned senior.”
It’s that leadership that Staley will be counting on from Latson. As an incoming senior, she won’t have much time to jell with the players who have already been there, and while she’ll undoubtedly be the Gamecocks’ primary offensive option, she’ll also be expected to use her on-ball creation skills to get her teammates open, which is something Staley refers to as Latson’s “other superpower.”
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Latson’s first superpower is, of course, scoring the basketball. In that phase of the game, she’s without peer: She’s both explosive and shifty off the dribble, making it almost impossible to keep her out of the paint, and her array of off-handed finishes, pull-up jumpers and difficult fadeaway shots is as complete of a scoring package as you’ll see in college basketball. There’s no area of the court where Latson isn’t dangerous, and she’s proven time and time again the ability to single-handedly carry a team, even when she’s the focus of every opponent’s game plan.
Those are all things South Carolina needs—to an extent. The Gamecocks sent three of last season’s players to the WNBA Draft, and lost a key scoring guard, MiLaysia Fulwiley, to the transfer portal, so if they’re going to avenge their loss in the 2025 title game, they could use the firepower Latson brings.
What South Carolina doesn’t necessarily need is a guard to dominate the ball. Tessa Johnson is one of the best shooters in the country, and Joyce Edwards has the potential to be a National Player of the Year candidate. These are players who Staley will want to keep involved; Latson won’t need to repeat the 38.1 percent usage rate she posted last season at Florida State, and if she does, the Gamecocks probably won’t be functioning at their best.
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As Staley put it, in order for Latson to fit in, she’ll need to “make defenses forget about her.” That isn’t literal—no opponent is going to treat Latson like a low-usage complementary player—but she probably won’t have the ball in her hands nearly as often as she did at Florida State, and will thus be expected to contribute to winning in other ways.
Latson doesn’t foresee that being an issue, though. Back in August, she told Gamecocks Online that she wants to be more efficient as a 3-point shooter, as well as improving her assist/turnover ratio and rebounding. Theoretically, a slight scale-back in her role relative to what she was doing at Florida State should come with an uptick in efficiency, as well as more room to showcase the passing ability that Staley is so high on.
It goes without saying that no matter where Latson decided to finish her collegiate career, whether it be Florida State, South Carolina or elsewhere, she’d wind up being a first-round pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft. In her case, it’s a matter of adding onto what she’s already great at. We’ve known for years that Latson can score at an elite clip, and it would surprise no one to see her average 20 or more points per game yet again. The difference is Latson is now in an environment tailor-made for players who hope to one day make it to the WNBA, and the more she helps South Carolina win, the better the chances of her being a top draft pick in 2026 will be.
Watch her play
As is typical for South Carolina, the Gamecocks will play a rigorous non-conference schedule this season, and many of those games will be televised nationally.
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They’ll kick things off against the Clemson Tigers on Nov. 11 (ESPN2) and play the No. 18 USC Trojans after that on Nov. 15 (FOX). South Carolina will then participate in the Players Era Championship, taking on the No. 7 Duke Blue Devils on Nov. 26 and either the No. 4 Texas Longhorns or the No. 3 UCLA Bruins on Nov. 27; both of these games will be televised on TruTV.
Conference play begins at the turn of the calendar year, and South Carolina will play Texas on Jan. 15 (ESPN2), the No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners on Jan. 22 (ESPN) and the No. 19 Vanderbilt Commodores on Jan. 25 (ESPN). Other must-watch SEC matchups for the Gamecocks include games against the No. 8 Tennessee Lady Vols (Feb. 8; ABC), the No. 5 LSU Tigers (Feb. 14; ABC) and the No. 12 Ole Miss Rebels (Feb. 22; ESPN or ESPN2).
