South Carolina women's basketball: The Gamecocks are learning to play with a small roster

South Carolina finished Sunday’s game with just seven available players. It didn’t matter against NC Central, but it meant players once again logged heavy minutes.

South Carolina’s roster attrition began all the way back in July when Ashlyn Watkins announced she would sit out the season. That dropped South Carolina to 11 players.

Then, a little over a month before the season began, Chloe Kitts was lost for the year with a torn ACL. The Gamecocks were down to 10 players, a tiny roster for a program that is used to going nine or 10 players deep. They could ill-afford to lose another player.

10 Games into the season, South Carolina has had all 10 players available at the start of just four games, and finished with all 10 just three times.

It began in the preseason when Ayla McDowell missed the North Carolina game with an illness. 

Maddy McDaniel left the season-opener against Grand Canyon after banging knees. She missed the next four games with the injury and a suspension. 

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Agot Makeer left the second game against Bowling Green after getting stepped on, leaving South Carolina with just eight players. She returned to play Clemson, but has missed the last two games while in concussion protocol. 

The attrition reached its most extreme point against NC Central. Makeer was still out, and then Tessa Johnson was too sick to play. Then, less than four minutes before halftime, Madina Okot left the game because she was also sick. Okot was able to return to the bench after an extended halftime break, but did not play, leaving the Gamecocks with just seven players.

“It sucks, dealing with that,” Ta’Niya Latson said. “It hits us as a team, but we’ve got to keep going. That’s Coach’s mentality, next man up, and we’ve just got to keep on.”

Dawn Staley explained her mentality as only thinking about the players who are available. During a timeout, Raven Johnson said she missed having Tessa Johnson to pass to. 

“Well, we’ve got Ayla,” Staley told her. “Pass the ball to Ayla.”

Staley tries to instill that focus in her players.

“I only see what’s in front of us. So we had eight today. I only see eight,” Staley said. “We got reduced to seven, I only see seven. We’re going to play the hand that we’re dealt to the best of our ability. We can worry about whatever, whenever. But for me, whoever’s healthy, let us know who’s healthy, and then we can take it from there.”

There have been more extreme situations than the one South Carolina finds itself in. Earlier this season, Auburn held walk-on tryouts to try to fill out the back end of its roster. Two years ago, TCU had so many injuries that it forfeited a pair of games and held open tryouts to add four players just so the Frogs could finish the season.

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It has reached that point for South Carolina, but it’s close enough that Staley has started running through some options in her head. During the 2022-23 season, Notre Dame had so many injuries that the Irish cajoled freshman Cassandre Prosper to enroll early so they would have a bench. (Kitts also enrolled early that December, but not for depth.)

“I pray for that,” Staley joked. “Who knows?”

However, it isn’t an option for South Carolina. 

“Not the ones that we signed,” Staley said. “No, they’re all committed to their high school.”

Both signees, Kaeli Wynn and Kelsi Andrews, are also recovering from injuries, so it’s unlikely they could contribute anyway. So the Gamecocks will have to make do with the 10 players they have.

“It’s just a different challenge, and we are at our very best when we’re challenged,” Staley said. “We are at our very best. It may not look like it or feel like it, but hopefully we can get the same result, and that’s what we strive for.”

Plus, after West Virginia beat Duke with just five players earlier this season, nobody feels sorry if you only have eight or nine.

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