Who's who on South Carolina basketball's 2025-26 roster?

After a 12-20 season in 2024-25, South Carolina basketball will look much different on the court in 2025-26. Several Gamecocks transferred out, a few graduated, and one standout departed to the NBA Draft.

With the new crop of players moving in this summer, GamecockCentral has a breakdown of the current roster for this upcoming season.

Returnees

G Myles Stute — Stute applied for and received a hardship waiver to extend his college career after missing half of last season to injury. If healthy, he could become the steady-shooting veteran presence that Gamecocks fans saw in 2023-24. Stute scored just 5.4 PPG last season, but shot 38.5% from deep and averaged 8.3 PPG during the Gamecocks’ record-breaking year prior. Stute has shown the ability to be reliable on catch-and-shoot threes. If the offense can spread the ball around, he’ll have a chance to put the ball in the basket.

G Cam Scott — Scott came into the 2024-25 season as a highly-touted recruit. However, he struggled to find consistency and was inefficient from the field. Despite a top-40 ranking nationally in the class of 2025, per On3, Scott didn’t see the rotation often and failed to reach double-digit points in a game. Scott is staying with the program after originally entering the transfer portal. Due to attrition, the tall (6’6″) guard is now one of the longest-tenured players on the roster. Time moves fast in the portal era. Cam Scott, now in his second year with Lamont Paris, can provide valuable experience to a freshman class that includes five recruits.

F Jordan Butler — Butler came on strong at the tail-end of the 2024-25 season. Despite the Gamecocks’ postseason hopes hovering near zero percent in February and March, Butler showed visible improvement on the court. The seven-footer had some of the best games of his collegiate career in late-season games against Arkansas. In South Carolina’s regular-season triumph over the Razorbacks, Butler scored nine points and hit multiple shots from beyond the arc. He had five points, four rebounds, and two blocks against Arkansas in the conference tournament. Even though Butler did not see large chunks of minutes as a sophomore, a summer in the weight room could change that. The ability to make shots from range, plus the loss of Collin Murray-Boyles and Nick Pringle, might mean more time for Butler on the court.

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Incoming Transfers

G Meechie Johnson — Johnson is a familiar face to Columbia residents. The Ohio State transfer was the leading scorer for South Carolina in the 2023-24 season, then took his talents to Columbus last year. He didn’t have the same success in the Buckeye State, only playing in ten games. But he’ll be back in action for South Carolina this upcoming season. Known for a very deep range from beyond the arc, Johnson provides floor spacing that a Paris offense thrives on. Having a sixth-year player like Johnson is highly valuable for a team bringing in five freshmen. His talent, however, might be even more valuable than the experience.

G Kobe Knox — Knox comes to South Carolina after two seasons in the AAC with South Florida. The Florida native started 55 of 63 game appearances for the Bulls after spending his freshman year with Grand Canyon. Offensively, he had his best career season this past year. Knox averaged 10.4 PPG and shot 76.7% from the free throw line. Defensively, he added 1.1 steals per game as a physical guard on the perimeter. Knox had the most win shares on the Bulls this past season and recorded 15 points, nine rebounds and four steals in his most recent contest, a loss to Wichita State in the AAC Tournament.

F Christ Essandoko — Essandoko comes to South Carolina from Providence. In terms of pure size, he’s one of the biggest pickups of the offseason. Essandoko is listed at seven feet tall and 290 pounds, per the Friars’ roster page. His stats don’t jump off the page: he averaged 4.3 PPG and 3.9 RPG last season. But he has nimble footwork for a player his size, and he shot 36.8% from deep as a freshman with St. Joseph’s. That’s the recipe for a Paris post player.

G Mike Sharavjamts — Sharavjamts is a part of a basketball family. His father, Sharavjamts Tserenjankhar, was the first Asian player to suit up with the Harlem Globetrotters. A lanky guard at 6’9″, 180 pounds, the Utah transfer averaged 7.2 PPG while starting a majority of the Utes’ games last season. He scored 15 points and added six assists against UCF in one of his better games this past year. Hailing from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Sharavjamts had the second-highest block percentage on Utah’s roster last season, with a 3.4% rate. That would have trailed only Butler and Murray-Boyles on the Gamecocks roster last season. South Carolina will be Sharavjamts’ fourth school in as many years.

F Elijah Strong — Strong is another Paris recruit, a big man who can shoot a three. Coming over from Boston College, the 6’8″ forward shot 36.2% from beyond the arc last season. He hit 3+ threes in three different games last season, including against Clemson. The number of times South Carolina managed that last season? Exactly zero. That shooting brings an added dimension to the offense, similar to how B.J. Mack stretched the floor in the 2023-24 season.

F Nordin Kapic — Kapic (6’8″, 245 lbs) comes to Columbia from across the country, but before that trip, he traveled across the Atlantic. The Austrian native played two seasons at Lynn University in Boca Raton. There, he averaged a double-double as a freshman. A capable shooter, he averaged 41.3% from deep in his second season with Lynn. After his sophomore year, he transferred to the UCSD Tritons of the Big West Conference. As a key cog for one of the best mid-major teams this past season, Kapic averaged 10.7 PPG and 5.2 RPG.

Freshman Recruits

G Eli Ellis — Ellis is the highest-rated of South Carolina’s 2025 recruiting class. He’s ranked 72nd in the latest On3 class rankings, marking the second straight season Paris has secured a top-100 recruit. Listed at 6’1″, Ellis isn’t the tallest or biggest guard. But his scoring acumen while playing in the Overtime Elite league cannot be overstated. He led all players with a 32.1 PPG mark, over five points higher than the next-best clip. Ellis also led the league in assists per game and led his team, the YNG Dreamerz, to a championship. This week, his brother Isaac committed to South Carolina for the 2026 cycle. With almost complete turnover in the backcourt in Columbia, Ellis has the inside track on playing time early.

F EJ Walker — Walker is the second-highest rated recruit for South Carolina in the 2025 class, after Ellis. Paris beat out a couple of Big Ten programs for Walker’s commitment. Walker stated his relationship with Paris as a coach was a primary reason for his pledge to play for South Carolina. A true power forward, Walker was rated as one of the best recruits in the state of Kentucky. He’s listed at 6’8″ and 220 pounds.

F Grant Polk — Paris dipped into Washington, D.C. to grab wing Grant Polk. Polk fits into Paris’s scheme as a shooter, hitting shots from outside reliably. Per On3, he’s the third-best recruit for South Carolina this cycle, 247th nationally, per On3. Polk is 6’6″, keeping with a trend of taller freshmen for this South Carolina recruiting class.

F Hayden Assemian — Assemian is the teammate of Eli Ellis with Overtime Elite, and was the first prospect to sign with South Carolina in the 2025 cycle. Listed at 6’6″, Assemian is still talented on the glass. In one of his most recent OTE games, he only scored six points but tallied 17 total rebounds. South Carolina as a team was 13th in the SEC with just 29.3 rebounds per game in conference contests last season. Assemian is rated as the 250th prospect in On3’s 2025 player rankings.

F Abu Yarmah — Yarmah is the latest commit to join the fold. A fellow Overtime Elite prospect like Ellis, Yarmah, was committed this cycle to High Point. However, he reneged on that decision and joined the Gamecocks program as the fifth freshman recruit. As of June 5, he’s rated inside the top 300 in On3’s 2025 player rankings. Yarmah was teammates with Assemian and Ellis at prep school, so he already has chemistry with a couple of players on the roster. A wing, standing at 6’7″, Yarmah averaged 7.8 rebounds per game in his latest Overtime Elite season for the YNG Dreamerz.

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