South Carolina women's basketball: Four things to watch at SEC Tipoff

SEC Tipoff ‘26 begins on Tuesday when South Carolina will appear. Here are four things I’m watching for in Birmingham.

Read the full schedule here.

1. The slow fade of love
With the loosening of transfer restrictions, it isn’t necessarily a big deal when a player encounters her former team. There aren’t a lot of hard feelings anymore. 

But with the sheer number of high-profile players who transferred within the SEC, will there be a jilted lover who loses their cool?

You have MiLaysia Fulwiley going from South Carolina to rival LSU, Madina Okot going from Mississippi State to South Carolina, Debreasha Powe going from Mississippi State to rival Ole Miss, Kharyssa Richardson making the opposite move after starting at Auburn, Ashton Judd going from Missouri to Texas, and so on.

Even on the coaching side, former Vol for Life Kellie Harper is now at Missouri. 

Chances are, somebody has some grievances to air. 

2. How South Carolina plans for life without Chloe Kitts
This storyline has been percolating since Kitts showed up at a volleyball game nine days ago with a large brace on her right knee. The Gamecocks didn’t have an update then, but when South Carolina announced Kitts would attend media days, the assumption was that it must not be serious.

Then, early Monday morning, South Carolina announced Kitts would miss the season (and Tessa Johnson will replace her in Birmingham). 

We can speculate on what things will look like (like I did), but this is our first chance to find out what Dawn Staley and the players are thinking.

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3. Who’s mad?
Every year, there is at least one coach who uses his or her time at the podium to rant about something. Sometimes it’s valid, sometimes it’s just standing up for your team, and sometimes it’s ridiculous. 

Scheduling, recruiting, NIL/rev share, budgets, crowd size… these are all possible sources of frustration. Announcing the projected finish and all-SEC teams the day before media days start already provides more ammunition. The preseason AP Top 25 is supposed to be released on Tuesday, meaning some coaches could learn their ranking in real time.

4. Will there be a PR campaign?
At football media days, the SEC and Big Ten used the spotlight to push conflicting narratives about which league is stronger.. 

We probably won’t see anything that coordinated (or fundamentally silly). The most likely candidate is the SCORE Act. If you’ve missed it, the SEC is arguing that athletics departments hate every sport but football and are so incompetent with money that they need federal legislation to force them to do the right thing.

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