South Carolina basketball preseason profiles: Jordan Butler
Lamont Paris’ South Carolina basketball team begins their season in less than two weeks. On November 4th, the North Florida Ospreys will travel to Colonial Life Arena for the opener, and the 2024-2025 Gamecock season officially will be underway. In the weeks leading up to the first game, GamecockCentral will profile each member of the team. Today we will look at sophomore big man Jordan Butler.
Jordan Butler (Sophomore, Power Forward/Center), 7’0”, 240 pounds)
Last Season (with Missouri Tigers): 30 games (13 starts), 2.0 points, 1.9 rebounds, 0.8 blocks, 0.1 assists, 0.3 steals, 39.7%%/16%/50%
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Jordan Butler transferred from Missouri to South Carolina this offseason, and the Palmetto State native will be an important piece for Coach Paris’ squad this season. He was a consensus 4-star player in the class of 2023 and spent one tough year with the Tigers before transferring home. He instantly became the tallest guy on the team (listed at 7’0″) and will add shooting punch to USC’s frontcourt.
Butler is a big, but he is most comfortable playing a stretch role. If things go well for him, he could play a role this season that mirrors the combined efforts of two players from last year. BJ Mack was the pick-and-pop forward, while Josh Gray was the biggest shot-blocker on the team. Butler won’t match the combined statistical or minutes totals from Mack and Gray. However, he could fill some of their vacated duties and roles on the team.
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On offense, Butler is a unicorn. 7-footers aren’t supposed to have elite outside touch, but he does. Despite some overall shooting struggles, he made 63% of his shots at the rim during the 2023-2024 season. That was similar to what Josh Gray did for the Gamecocks last year. From outside, the shots didn’t fall at all last year, but his form is solid, and he knocked shots down in high school. Butler also loves to operate as the shooter in the pick-and-pop game like BJ Mack did during the 2023-2024 season.
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Don’t look too closely at Jordan Butler’s numbers from his time in the “other Columbia.” Missouri was awful last year, and their four leading scorers took 70% of the team’s shots. However, on the defensive end, Butler blogged 0.8 shots in just 11 minutes per game. He logged an 8.8% block rate, which is an elite rim protection number. While he hasn’t shown lockdown defensive ability in the post, his length and block timing are exceptional.
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Right now, Butler seems like the clear-cut third big for South Carolina this preseason. Collin Murray-Boyles and Nick Pringle will be the starters. With 2024 signee Okku Federiko still not enrolled, Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk is the only other big on the roster. BBV could still get some minutes on this team, but Butler’s length and shooting ability will allow him to fit next to any of the other post players.
Butler and the Gamecocks hope to follow up a record-tying 26-win season and 2nd-place SEC finish with another strong year. Another trip to the NCAA Tournament would mark South Carolina’s first back-to-back berths in the Big Dance since the 1990s.
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