South Carolina women's basketball: Dawn Staley talks about Maddy McDaniel's return

Sophomore point guard Maddy McDaniel played against Queens on Sunday after missing South Carolina’s last four games. Her return gave the Gamecocks a welcome boost.

Going into the season, McDaniel was expected to be one of South Carolina’s most important reserves, if not the most important. 

But McDaniel banged knees with a defender in the first half of the season opener and sat out the Bowling Green game with an injured right knee.

McDaniel missed the last three games after being suspended for an undisclosed transgression. That forced the Gamecocks to make do with just nine active players and only one true point guard, Raven Johnson.

McDaniel returned to practice on Thursday and then returned to game action on Sunday. The player everyone calls “Mouse” was greeted with a big cheer when she checked into the game, welcomed back into the fold with open arms.

“Maddy is a great young lady,” Dawn Staley said after the game. “She is of great character. But some of the choices you make have consequences. It was more on Maddy and how she is communicating with me and our staff, and communicating with her teammates. Her teammates are the ones that was her voice, and they had a more powerful voice when it comes to that. Obviously, they like Maddy. They like all their teammates. They want our entire team together, and they voice that.”

In her brief playing time, McDaniel recorded three assists and two points, with a rebound and a steal. The spark she provided was palpable.

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“We were very excited when Maddy came back,” Raven Johnson said. “She just brings energy to our team. When practice first started, we had a circle. She’s part of that circle. When she’s gone, you can feel her presence is not there.”

McDaniel only played 12 minutes against Queens, as she works her way back into game shape after not playing for nearly three weeks. Those 12 minutes felt like a lot more.

McDaniel can be a change of pace from Johnson at point guard, and she immediately pushed the tempo. Having McDaniel back also allowed Ta’Niya Latson, Tessa Johnson, and Agot Makeer, who had been playing out of position as backup point guards, to return to their more comfortable positions.

That means a lot as the Gamecocks prepare to play back-to-back games next week in Las Vegas.

“It’s imperative that we have all 10,” Staley said. “It was really good to get Maddy back, especially for a few practices; we’re just going to acclimate her back into the swing of things. I thought she did great. But, it’s needed. It’s needed for our rotations, it’s needed for us to practice, it’s needed just for some of our younger players to stay in the positions that they need to be able to be effective.”

South Carolina plays Duke on Wednesday, and then plays either UCLA or Texas on Thursday.

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