South Carolina forward Sahnya Jah suspended indefinitely for conduct detrimental to team

South Carolina freshman Sahnya Jah is suspended indefinitely due to conduct detrimental to the team. The program announced the suspension less than an hour before the Gamecocks tipped off against Missouri on Thursday evening.

Jah has only appeared in 16 games this season, the fewest of any player on the roster. Jah averages 3.1 points and 2.0 rebounds in 9.1 minutes in those appearances. She has appeared in six of South Carolina’s nine SEC games. Jah was given a “week off” from practice in the preseason.

South Carolina is already down a player this week with standout center Kamilla Cardoso competing in Olympic qualifiers for Brazil’s national team. Without Jah and Cardoso, South Carolina will square off against Missouri on Thursday. The game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.

How the loss affects South Carolina

Kardoso’s absence is a significant loss for South Carolina. The 6-foot-7 senior averages 13.8 points and 9.8 rebounds per game while shooting 59.5% from the field. Ahead of South Carolina’smatchup against Mizzou, Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley revealed how Cardoso’s absence will affect the team.

“Everybody just has to do what they do best, like do what you’ve been doing,” Staley said. “We don’t have anybody that’s 6-7. You know, that’s almost averaging a double-double. We don’t, we don’t have anybody. We have different [players] though and being different and being versatile, we have to lean in on that and not try to reproduce what we’re missing.

“We can make up for scoring. We really can make up for scoring. We can’t make up for the defensive presence that Kamilla brings just from her stature. We can however play, you know the the other side of it, the rotations and we could switch probably a little bit more than we normally do.”

South Carolina shouldn’t change too much. The Gamecocks are 21-0, earning them the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25. Five of South Carolina’s 21 victories are against ranked opponents. Nonetheless, mere regular-season success won’t satisfy South Carolina.

The Gamecocks are hungry for a national championship. The team fell to Iowa in the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament last season. For now, Staley is focused on keeping her team’s focus on the task at hand.

“I don’t care about other people’s expectations of our team,” Staley said earlier this season. “I don’t care about other people’s views of our team. We had the best team in the nation last year, so yeah, they had to talk about us.

“Now they don’t deem us as the top team in the country. They probably don’t have to talk about us so it really doesn’t matter to me. I couldn’t care less about it.”