#2 AP Preseason SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS 0-0 (0-0 SEC)
Last Season 35-4, 15-1 SEC Conf. and Tournament Champion, NCAA 5-1; Lost to UConn 59-82 in NCAA Championship.
Thursday night’s preseason matchup for the #11 AP Preseason Tar Heels is with the South Carolina Gamecocks in Atlanta. Preseason exhibition games are usually not subject to predictions by the various services. It would seem very likely that S. Carolina would be heavily favored if this were a “real” game, considering Carolina’s recent record with the Gamecocks. The last meeting was in the NCAA 2nd round in 2024. Carolina had no answer for Dawn Staley’s club and was handed the second worst loss in program history: 47 points (41-88).
UNC has lost its last four meetings with South Carolina, including all three in the Courtney Banghart era. In games that count in the standings, UNC and S. Carolina are tied 11-11 in 22 meetings.
The Gamecocks have several McDonald’s All-Americans available, including the two Johnsons, 6-0 junior G Tessa and 5-9 senior G Raven. Raven is the acknowledged floor leader now with the departure of Te-Hina Paopao (graduation) and MiLaysia Fulwiley (transfer to LSU). She started all 39 games last season (4.9 ppg) with 108 assists (410 for her career so far). The other Johnson, Tessa, averaged 8.4 ppg last year and for her career is a .431 3-point shooter (81 of 188). She had just two starts in 2024-25 but is expected to be in the starting lineup this year. The two Johnsons are not related.
Joyce Edwards, a 6-3 sophomore F, was All-SEC 1st Team last year (12.7 ppg 5.0 rpg), and like Tessa J. was coming off the bench. Maddy McDaniel (3.1 ppg) was more deep bench last year but like Edwards is a McD’s AA and played for Bishop McNamara in MD.
The gamecocks got help through the portal, signing Madina Okot, a 6-6 senior C from Mississippi State (11.3 ppg/9.6 rpg) and a player who was certainly the “get” in this year’s portal, All-American Ta’Niya Latson from FSU, a 5-8 senior G. She averaged 25.2 ppg at FSU, leading the ACC and the NCAA. Fans will remember it was Latson who made a last-second layup to beat UNC 86-84.
On a personal level, I am not sorry she transferred. She can now annoy SEC teams with last-second heroics.
S. Carolina also signed two McD’s AAs in this year’s class: Ayla McDowell and Agot Makeer. Both are 6-1 guards; McDowell from Texas and Makeer from Canada. Makeer played her HS ball in Florida and so was eligible for the McDonald’s list.
Finally, there is Maryam Dauda, a 6-4 senior who was a starter at Arkansas where she was a double figure scorer (10.1). Dauda did not find a niche at S. Carolina last season, averaging only 2 ppg in 6 minutes of action. Another McD’s AA, Dauda originally was a commitment to Baylor, but after a coaching change switched to Arkansas.
One player the gamecocks will not have is Chloe Kitts, a 6-2 senior F. A starter in 2025 (10.2 ppg/7.7 rpg), Kitts suffered an ACL tear in preseason workouts and will miss the entire year. On the good news side, 6-5 sophomore F Adhel Tac, who missed all her freshman year with an ACL tear, is now healthy and brings additional size.
The Head Coach is of course Dawn Staley, all-everything at Virginia and four time Olympic gold medalist, three as a player and one as head coach in 2020. In her 17th year, Staley has boosted her record at South Carolina to 475 – 110, although counting her eight years at Temple she is 647 – 190 (77.3%) Staley is a member of both the Women’s and the Naismith HOF as a player, and will certainly get there again as a coach.
For Carolina, there will be a new look as starters Alyssa Ustby, Lexi Donarski, and Maria Gakdeng have graduated, along with backup PG Grace Townsend. Taking their places will be 6-1 Freshman Nyla Brooks, a McDonald’s AA from Maryland; Nyla Harris, a 6-2 senior F transfer from Louisville where she started 81 games; and Elina Aarnisalo, a 5-10 transfer from UCLA expected to help at PG.
The replacement for Maria is less clear, although the two candidates would seem to be 6-4 Redshirt Sophomore Ciera Toomey and 6-5 Sophomore Blanca Thomas. Thomas seems the better defender (25 blocks in 2025) but Toomey would appear to have more offensive range (16 made threes). Ciera would need to improve her FT shooting, an appallingly bad 25%, to earn more PT.
Starters Indya Nivar and Reniya Kelly both return. If the Aarnisalo experiment works out, Nivar and Kelly would be freed up to focus on the 2-guard spot. Kelly is the team’s legitimate 3-point threat (41.2%) but Nivar is the better defender (a team best 68 steals).
Other folks who can find employment in 2025-26 include Lanie Grant, a 5-9 sophomore G, Taliyah Henderson, a 6-1 freshman F, Liza Astakhova, a 6-2 freshman F from Moscow, and Taissa Queiroz , a 6-1 F from Brazil who has been on the team since last winter and is now eligible. She has considerable international experience, as does Aarnisalo for her native Finland.
UNC fans continue to wonder when 6-1 F Laila Hull, a former Indiana POY, will break out. The issue seems not to be a lack of talent (38.9% 3-point) but lack of opportunity.
This exhibition game is scheduled to be played as though it were a regular season event. The event is fully sponsored (Bad Boy Mowers) and tickets are not cheap. The host team is South Carolina, and it is a good bet that they will have fans on hand since it is a 3 hour drive. Someone as media-savvy as Dawn Staley knows how to promote an event like this – and she also knows that there will be media coverage so it’s important for a NC contender to “look good”..
Staley and Courtney Banghart seem to have a friendly relationship, and it should be the case that winning is less important than putting on a good show for the fans. With that in mind, everyone should see court time. Still, SC has only 10 active players, 8 of them McDonald’s AAs. UNC should have all 14 rostered players active. If Carolina wants to give everybody up and down the bench playing time, it could be a matchup problem against the talent-heavy Gamecocks.
Game time is 6 PM EDT. So far as I can tell, the game will not be carried by any video service but radio will be provided by GoHeels.
Last Season 35-4, 15-1 SEC Conf. and Tournament Champion, NCAA 5-1; Lost to UConn 59-82 in NCAA Championship.
Thursday night’s preseason matchup for the #11 AP Preseason Tar Heels is with the South Carolina Gamecocks in Atlanta. Preseason exhibition games are usually not subject to predictions by the various services. It would seem very likely that S. Carolina would be heavily favored if this were a “real” game, considering Carolina’s recent record with the Gamecocks. The last meeting was in the NCAA 2nd round in 2024. Carolina had no answer for Dawn Staley’s club and was handed the second worst loss in program history: 47 points (41-88).
UNC has lost its last four meetings with South Carolina, including all three in the Courtney Banghart era. In games that count in the standings, UNC and S. Carolina are tied 11-11 in 22 meetings.
The Gamecocks have several McDonald’s All-Americans available, including the two Johnsons, 6-0 junior G Tessa and 5-9 senior G Raven. Raven is the acknowledged floor leader now with the departure of Te-Hina Paopao (graduation) and MiLaysia Fulwiley (transfer to LSU). She started all 39 games last season (4.9 ppg) with 108 assists (410 for her career so far). The other Johnson, Tessa, averaged 8.4 ppg last year and for her career is a .431 3-point shooter (81 of 188). She had just two starts in 2024-25 but is expected to be in the starting lineup this year. The two Johnsons are not related.
Joyce Edwards, a 6-3 sophomore F, was All-SEC 1st Team last year (12.7 ppg 5.0 rpg), and like Tessa J. was coming off the bench. Maddy McDaniel (3.1 ppg) was more deep bench last year but like Edwards is a McD’s AA and played for Bishop McNamara in MD.
The gamecocks got help through the portal, signing Madina Okot, a 6-6 senior C from Mississippi State (11.3 ppg/9.6 rpg) and a player who was certainly the “get” in this year’s portal, All-American Ta’Niya Latson from FSU, a 5-8 senior G. She averaged 25.2 ppg at FSU, leading the ACC and the NCAA. Fans will remember it was Latson who made a last-second layup to beat UNC 86-84.
On a personal level, I am not sorry she transferred. She can now annoy SEC teams with last-second heroics.
S. Carolina also signed two McD’s AAs in this year’s class: Ayla McDowell and Agot Makeer. Both are 6-1 guards; McDowell from Texas and Makeer from Canada. Makeer played her HS ball in Florida and so was eligible for the McDonald’s list.
Finally, there is Maryam Dauda, a 6-4 senior who was a starter at Arkansas where she was a double figure scorer (10.1). Dauda did not find a niche at S. Carolina last season, averaging only 2 ppg in 6 minutes of action. Another McD’s AA, Dauda originally was a commitment to Baylor, but after a coaching change switched to Arkansas.
One player the gamecocks will not have is Chloe Kitts, a 6-2 senior F. A starter in 2025 (10.2 ppg/7.7 rpg), Kitts suffered an ACL tear in preseason workouts and will miss the entire year. On the good news side, 6-5 sophomore F Adhel Tac, who missed all her freshman year with an ACL tear, is now healthy and brings additional size.
The Head Coach is of course Dawn Staley, all-everything at Virginia and four time Olympic gold medalist, three as a player and one as head coach in 2020. In her 17th year, Staley has boosted her record at South Carolina to 475 – 110, although counting her eight years at Temple she is 647 – 190 (77.3%) Staley is a member of both the Women’s and the Naismith HOF as a player, and will certainly get there again as a coach.
For Carolina, there will be a new look as starters Alyssa Ustby, Lexi Donarski, and Maria Gakdeng have graduated, along with backup PG Grace Townsend. Taking their places will be 6-1 Freshman Nyla Brooks, a McDonald’s AA from Maryland; Nyla Harris, a 6-2 senior F transfer from Louisville where she started 81 games; and Elina Aarnisalo, a 5-10 transfer from UCLA expected to help at PG.
The replacement for Maria is less clear, although the two candidates would seem to be 6-4 Redshirt Sophomore Ciera Toomey and 6-5 Sophomore Blanca Thomas. Thomas seems the better defender (25 blocks in 2025) but Toomey would appear to have more offensive range (16 made threes). Ciera would need to improve her FT shooting, an appallingly bad 25%, to earn more PT.
Starters Indya Nivar and Reniya Kelly both return. If the Aarnisalo experiment works out, Nivar and Kelly would be freed up to focus on the 2-guard spot. Kelly is the team’s legitimate 3-point threat (41.2%) but Nivar is the better defender (a team best 68 steals).
Other folks who can find employment in 2025-26 include Lanie Grant, a 5-9 sophomore G, Taliyah Henderson, a 6-1 freshman F, Liza Astakhova, a 6-2 freshman F from Moscow, and Taissa Queiroz , a 6-1 F from Brazil who has been on the team since last winter and is now eligible. She has considerable international experience, as does Aarnisalo for her native Finland.
UNC fans continue to wonder when 6-1 F Laila Hull, a former Indiana POY, will break out. The issue seems not to be a lack of talent (38.9% 3-point) but lack of opportunity.
This exhibition game is scheduled to be played as though it were a regular season event. The event is fully sponsored (Bad Boy Mowers) and tickets are not cheap. The host team is South Carolina, and it is a good bet that they will have fans on hand since it is a 3 hour drive. Someone as media-savvy as Dawn Staley knows how to promote an event like this – and she also knows that there will be media coverage so it’s important for a NC contender to “look good”..
Staley and Courtney Banghart seem to have a friendly relationship, and it should be the case that winning is less important than putting on a good show for the fans. With that in mind, everyone should see court time. Still, SC has only 10 active players, 8 of them McDonald’s AAs. UNC should have all 14 rostered players active. If Carolina wants to give everybody up and down the bench playing time, it could be a matchup problem against the talent-heavy Gamecocks.
Game time is 6 PM EDT. So far as I can tell, the game will not be carried by any video service but radio will be provided by GoHeels.
