COLUMBIA — South Carolina women’s basketball is hoping to reach the national championship game for a third straight season.
Coach Dawn Staley is in her 18th season and has been to seven of the last 10 Final Fours, including five straight. She has won three national championships at South Carolina.
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The Greenville News’ Lulu Kesin asked Gamecocks fans for their questions ahead of the 2025-26 season opener on Nov. 3 against Grand Canyon. Here’s what some fans want to know.
Do you think Tessa Johnson or Joyce Edwards starts? Starting lineup?
This question is much easier to answer with Chloe Kitts out for the season with an ACL tear, but either way, I believed Tessa Johnson was always going to start.
Johnson is arguably Staley’s most important piece to the puzzle this year. She’s a fantastic two-way player who has both a pure 3-point shot and a classic mid-range game. She reads defenses and adjusts really well.
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Before Kitts went down, Staley had an advantage either way whether it was Edwards or Madina Okot coming off the bench.
Bench production? How do you think the guard depth would be utilized?
South Carolina was No. 1 in the nation in bench scoring last year (40.3 ppg) led by Edwards and MiLaysia Fulwiley. With Fulwiley gone to LSU and Tessa Johnson presumably starting, the bench players will have big shoes to fill.
If Edwards or Okot isn’t on the floor, Maryam Dauda will need to score points in the paint.
Freshmen Ayla McDowell and Agot Makeer are both quality shooters who can create their own mid-range shot and hit from the 3-point line. The key to scoring off the bench is creating with whoever is on the court with you, and the two seem to possess that flexibility.
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Maddy McDaniel is the only returning guard coming off the bench. She sees the floor well and her experience from last year is expected to catapult her to new heights in Year 2.
Until it’s clear how Staley utilizes her freshmen, it might be up to McDaniel to give Staley some depth at the guard spot.
What will Dawn’s rotations look like with 10 players?
At times last year, Staley would sub her entire team out at once. She can still do that this season but the five on the bench played a combined average of 4.4 minutes per game last year. McDaniel would be the point, with both Makeer and McDowell her guards, with Dauda the forward and Adhel Tac her center.
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It’s not a lack of talent but a lack of experience that will likely lead to heavy minutes for the starters as Staley works in the bench to get comfortable.
How is development of bigs going? Specifically Adhel Tac and Maryam Dauda
Dauda seems to be on pace for a really special year. The unfortunate circumstance of Kitts’ injury could bump up her playing time. Both Staley and her teammates have spoken highly of her offseason improvement.
If Dauda builds off her tournament performance, she could be a game-changer. If Tac stays healthy and builds consistent minutes, she can give Okot a break without a decrease of height in the paint.
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Chemistry related, with new players how do you know that the pieces will work together?
Chemistry plays a huge role in the success as a team and I think having a true center this year will make a huge difference. That isn’t to say South Carolina wasn’t connected last year, but I think having a more traditional starting five will really enhance the offensive chemistry.
Raven Johnson and Ta’Niya Latson are best friends off the court but haven’t shared the floor since high school. It’s expected they fall right back into place at the college level and I think the pieces they have around them will help that.
Ball movement is a South Carolina speciality and it’ll be easy to tell early if that suffers or is enhanced with this new group.
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Is there a specific way the roster is built this year to get over the UConn hump?
One of the biggest advantages last year’s unit had was the diversity in scoring, meaning any given night it could be a different top scorer but that also meant some games, nobody put up huge numbers. Edwards was so consistent downlow last year and the dominant scoring Latson brings should enhance the team’s overall scoring abilities as will the height and strength of Okot.
Trading shots with a team like UConn was hard as it had too many offensive weapons and South Carolina didn’t have a ton of height in the paint.
The roster is built to overcome those issues. If Latson scores even close to the amount she has at Florida State (21 or more ppg the last three years), Okot rebounds to the level she did at Mississippi State (10.1 per SEC game), Edwards takes steps forward not back and Tessa Johnson is more consistent, the Gamecocks offense looks way different.
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For future stories, you can send questions to Lulu Kesin via email: lkesin@gannett.com, on X: @LuluKesin, on BlueSky @bylulukesin.bsky.social or on Instagram: @lulu.kesin.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Can Dawn Staley’s South Carolina roster beat UConn? Fans want to know
