Portal roundup, more targets reportedly emerge

The deadline to put names into the portal has come and gone, and now South Carolina enters the home stretch of building its roster.

The Gamecocks already have a trio of scholarship transfers committed and have a handful of targets on the board. Here’s a look at how those shape up, and a few other targets going elsewhere.

The targets

The biggest name floating out there is former UT-Chattanooga guard Malachi Smith, who thrived last season for the Mocs.

Smith was SoCon Player of the Year, averaging 19.9 points, 6.7 rebounds and three assists per game. he shot 49.3 percent from the field, 40.7 percent from three.

Having played for now-Gamecocks head coach Lamot Paris, it’s easy to assume South Carolina will be in the running.

That’s incredibly fair, but given his scoring output there will be plenty of other big-name schools vying for his talents.

South Carolina has also reportedly shown interest in the St. Bonaventure duo of guard Kyle Lofton and big man Osun Osunniyi. That is according to ProInsight director of scouting Andrew Slater.

Lofton is a four-year starter for St. Bonaventure, averaging 13.9 points for his career. He averaged 12.8 this season and a whopping 5.9 assists to 2.6 turnover per game.

He shot 40.2 percent from the field and is a three-time All A-10 player.

Osunniyi is also a three-time All A-10 player and won the leauge’s defensive player of the year twice.

He averaged 11.3 points and 7.5 rebounds per game last year and blocked nearly three shots per game while shooting 61.4 percent from inside the three-point line.

According to Hoop Scoop Media the Gamecocks are also showing interest in another prolific Big South scorer, Bryson Mozone.

Mozone averaged 15.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per game last year for USC Upstate while shooting 44.6 percent from the field, 38.6 percent from three.

He’s originally from North Augusta.

Other targets on the move

A few targets who the Gamecocks were showing interest in committed elsewhere. Max Klesmit, who had South Carolina in his final four, committed to Wisconsin over the weekend.

The Wofford guard had a good visit to Columbia but once the home state school began showing interest the tide shifted toward the Badgers.

Klesmit went to high school less than 100 miles away from Madison and will get the chance to play closer to home.

High Point’s John Wright, who had preliminary interest from South Carolina’s staff, pledged Monday to Oklahoma State.

Louisiana big man Theo Akwuba, who had the Gamecocks in his top five, committed to Ole Miss.

South Carolina also reached out to UMKC forward Josiah Allick, but he recently told Jamie Shaw his visit schedule and the Gamecocks were not on it.

The current roster

The Gamecocks have three transfers currently committed with two of the three signed.

The Citadel’s Hayden Brown was the first two commit, averaging 18.8 points and 9.5 rebounds per game last season. Meechie Johnson, who played sparingly last year at Ohio State, was next.

Evansville guard Troy Boynton will enroll as a walk-on over the summer.

The third and final commitment right now is Coastal Carolina’s Ebrima Dibba.

Dibba, who can play point guard and slide all the way out to the three, averaged 8.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and 5.4 assists last season for the Chants.

They’ll pair with a two-man freshman class of point guard Zachary Davis and wing Daniel Hankins-Sanford. Davis moved up eight spots in the final On3 rankings, up to No. 139.

He’s considered the second-best player in South Carolina for his class and the No. 20 point guard overall.

In terms of returning players, South Carolina currently has two scholarship guards on the team in Jacobi Wright and Chico Carter Jr. They have three scholarship bigs: Tre-Vaughn Minott, Ja’Von Benson, Josh Gray.

South Carolina has three available scholarships to use for next year’s team.

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