South Carolina women's basketball: Four questions facing the Gamecocks on the first day of practice

South Carolina officially begins preseason practice today. Here are four burning questions the Gamecocks need to answer before the season begins.

1. Who starts in the frontcourt?
As practice officially begins, South Carolina appears to have three players – Chloe Kitts, Joyce Edwards, and Madina Okot – competing for two starting spots.

There are countless pros and cons to starting each player. You can talk yourself into circles trying to figure out which two should start (as we have often done on The Insiders Forum).

Figuring out the starters and rotation might be the key to the season.

2. What are the roles for Okot, Tac, and Dauda?
Okot averaged a near double-double at Mississippi State last season (11.2 points and 9.6 rebounds) and was brought in to be the dominant post that South Carolina lacked last year. Whether or not she starts, Okot is going to be South Carolina’s primary post.

But South Carolina also has a couple of highly regarded bigs who, despite disappointing seasons last year, bring a lot to the table. 

Maryam Dauda led the SEC in blocked shots in conference games two seasons ago and has three-point range. She leaned too heavily into the three-ball last season, and the rest of her game suffered. 

However, she had a huge game in the SEC tournament against Oklahoma and showed down the stretch that she was figuring out how to play in South Carolina’s system.

Tac was the second-ranked post in her recruiting class, but missing nearly two years of basketball due to injury set her back further than anyone anticipated. 

But Tac had the best rebounding rate on the team last season, and she knows how to use her 6-6 frame around the rim. Finally healthy, Tac has been fully immersed in Molly Binetti’s weight program and reshaped her body.

After Edwards and Kitts get their playing time, that leaves three players competing for not a lot of minutes. 

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3. How can Agot Makeer and Ayla McDowell contribute?
The veterans can handle the heavy lifting. But at the very least, South Carolina needs either or both freshmen to be able to step in and give the others a few minutes of rest each game. The freshmen don’t have to worry about being stars, but they need to figure out what they can contribute immediately.

Both Makeer and McDowell are extremely talented but somewhat raw. In particular, Makeer flashes moments of potential that made her one of the most coveted recruits in the 2025 class. In the long term, both are viewed as program cornerstones. 

Before they get there, they will be freshmen specialists, and they need to grasp that role. A three and D wing? A hustling forward? A change of pace lead guard? A go-to scorer? Makeer and McDowell have done it all before, but they need a defined role.

4. How do you maximize Ta’Niya Latson?
Dawn Staley has never had a player like Latson. Latson not only led the nation in scoring last season (25.2 points), but she was efficient doing it while also creating for her teammates without committing excessive turnovers (4.6 assists against 3.1 turnovers).

At Florida State, Latson was essentially given free rein to create for herself and her teammates. She won’t have that same level of freedom at South Carolina, but Staley also can’t just take the ball out of Latson’s hands and prevent her from doing what she does best. 

Both sides have to find the middle ground to maximize Latson’s exceptional ability without taking the rest of South Carolina’s considerably talented players out of the game.

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