South Carolina women's basketball: How Chloe Kitts turned a dismal first NCAA Tournament into a shining second edition
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What a difference a year makes.
During the 2023 NCAA tournament, Chloe Kitts played just 11 minutes total and missed her only shot attempt (she scored two points on free throws against Norfolk State). She wasn’t playing and she wasn’t happy.
So far during the 2024 NCAA Tournament, Kitts is South Carolina’s second-leading scorer, has led the Gamecocks to a pair of blowout wins, and most importantly she is having fun.
“It feels great,” Kitts said. “It’s so different than last year. I mean, last year I was part of it. But I really wasn’t a part of it. I was just happy to be there. And being able to play I just feel so different. And I’m just so happy I can help contribute.”
About the only similarity to last season is that she has one missed field goal. Kitts tied her career-high with 21 points against Presbyterian, hitting a perfect 9-9 from the floor. She followed that by hitting 4-5 for 12 points against North Carolina.
Kitts started 28 games this season. She accomplished a goal she set for herself following the end of last season and got the starting nod partly because of how well she plays off Kamilla Cardoso. But Kitts has come off the bench in the NCAA Tournament.
Despite her offseason goal, Kitts said she doesn’t have a problem coming off the bench because she trusts the coaches. They want her to be successful, and she has found an advantage to playing a reserve role.
“I do feel like there is you know,” Kitts said. “We get to watch a couple minutes of the game. We can see how the game is going, how the players are playing and what we need to do better than whoever was in before.”
It’s a mature way of approaching the situation from a player who should be a freshman this season, something that has impressed Dawn Staley.
“She’s really a freshman when you really look at it. So I think she’s handled it well,” Staley said. “I think her progression is going quite nicely. She’s well above what a normal freshman plays like.”
When I talked to Kitts last year in Dallas it was like pulling teeth. She rarely gave more than one-word answers and even those I could barely hear. Kitts never made eye contact. She stared down as she focused on picking at the hair at the end of her ponytail.
Kitts was miserable, but she was also learning. She saw Laeitica Amihere come off the bench but still get drafted. And she saw Brea Beal give up her offense to focus on defense. But the most important lesson Kitts learned was take nothing for granted.
“Try not to look ahead. It’s hard not to,” she told me. “Take every game like it’s your last game because you literally don’t know what’s happening. If you look at all those teams who are losing you’re just like, wow, this is not supposed to happen. But it’s March so anything can happen.”
Anything can happen, like an undefeated team losing in the semifinals. Kitts still remembers the feeling of the dejected, half-empty locker room after the game.
“I do have that feeling,” she said. “I don’t have that feeling as deep as Kamilla and Raven and those other girls last year just because I wasn’t out there. But I do have like a bitter taste my mouth and we know we don’t want to feel like that ever again.”
There’s no bitter taste right now. Kitts is having fun. The Gamecocks are having fun. She isn’t picking at her hair anymore, Kitts is blowing up balloons and hamming it up for social media posts.
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Her one-word whispers have been replaced by long, thoughtful answers or funny quips. It’s a part of Kitts that has always been there, she just wasn’t confident or comfortable enough to show it much last season.
I saw a glimpse of it after one of our interviews. Hanging in Kitts’ locker was a picture of her licking her best friend on the team last year, Oliva Thompson, on the forehead. Why, I asked, is there a picture of you licking Liv?
“It was Senior Day so I licked the seniors,” Kitts deadpanned.
That picture is back in Kitts’ locker for the postseason run, but now it is joined by a child’s crayon drawing of Kitts. The likeness is questionable, making it even cuter. I asked Kitts about it, and she was so excited to tell me about it that we were talking over each other.
“Oh, my gosh, yes. A fan made it for me,” Kitts said. “She handed to me in the regular season when we walk around. She handed it to me. And I was like, aww, let me just put in my locker and I put it in my locker!”
You put it next to –
“Me and Liv!”
So there are some things that don’t change.
