South Carolina women's basketball: Gamecock guard suspended

Sophomore point guard Maddy McDaniel has been suspended and will not be at Tuesday’s game against Clemson. South Carolina made the announcement about an hour before tipoff.

Dawn Staley addressed the suspension after South Carolina’s win over Clemson. She declined to say why McDaniel is suspended. She does not expect McDaniel to play on Saturday, and there is no timetable for her return.

“Doubt it,” Staley said. “That’s on her. We evaluate it every day.”

McDaniel had not played since the first half of the season-opener against Grand Canyon. She left that game with a knee injury.

Later that week at media availability on Thursday, McDaniel was at practice shooting and working on the side. She did not play against Bowling Green, but was in uniform and went through warmups.

McDaniel was not at the portion of practice open to the media on Monday. Staley said that McDaniel did not practice but was rehabbing. She said, “No, probably not,” when asked if McDaniel would play on Tuesday.

With McDaniel out, Staley said the backup point guard against Bowling Green was “a little bit of everybody.”

McDaniel played eight minutes in the season opener against Grand Canyon. She had three points and two assists in her limited playing time.

McDaniel left the game with 4:04 left in the first half. She banged knees with a Grand Canyon player who was setting a screen and crumpled to the court. She stayed down for a couple of minutes before being helped to the locker room by Staley and trainer Craig Oates.

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Staley did not have an update on McDaniel after the game but said, “Maddy’s pretty tough, so I’m not too worried.” Staley joked that McDaniel wouldn’t practice on Tuesday, before admitting it was an off day anyway.

McDaniel averaged 3.1 points and 1.7 assists last season. She was one of the surprises of the first half of the season, arguably outplaying Raven Johnson for the first couple of months. Johnson and McDaniel are the only point guards on South Carolina’s roster this season.

But McDaniel suffered a concussion that cost her the first three weeks after Christmas and then struggled to get back into the rotation during the SEC schedule.

South Carolina’s roster is already injury-depleted. Ashlyn Watkins is sitting out the season after tearing her ACL in January. Chloe Kitts tore her ACL in October and is out for the season. That leaves South Carolina with just 10 players.

This is a breaking story and will be updated when more information becomes available.

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