South Carolina women's basketball: Cleaning out the notebook
For Friday the 13th, I thought I’d clean out the notebook ahead of South Carolina’s three-game, three-week homestand.
– Around the country
Thursday night, Notre Dame beat previously unbeaten UConn in South Bend. That leaves just nine undefeated teams in the country. A few of those, like Portland and Buffalo, have played very weak schedules and aren’t even in the top 70 of the NET.
The point is, South Carolina’s loss at UCLA already feels like ancient history.
– Schedule challenges
My original story idea for today was going to be a stat comparison between this season and last season. But when I started to crunch the numbers what stood out wasn’t the numbers, it was the schedule. And it’s been brutal.
South Carolina has only played three home games, and only two buy games. Home guarantee games aren’t great for fans, but they are important for coaches to learn about players, rotations, and situational execution. They are also important for players to get into a rhythm.
That South Carolina is playing so well without that is impressive. It reminds me of 2021 when there were so many injuries and top-ten games that the Gamecocks had trouble finding any sort of rhythm until conference play.
So the story on stats will run in a few weeks instead of today.
– Recruiting notes
I never really got a chance to wrap up the early signing period. For a refresher, South Carolina signed one player, wing Ayla McDowell from Texas. But two of the Gamecocks’ remaining targets did not commit in November and will wait and sign in the spring.
Those two are guard Aaliyah Chavez, the top-ranked player in the class, and Agot Makeer, the fourth-ranked player. They are the only two unsigned players in ESPN’s 2025 top 100.
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Along with South Carolina, the other finalists for Chavez are UCLA, Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas Tech. South Carolina is still involved with Chavez, but I would be shocked if she comes to Columbia. All indications point to it being a three-way race among Texas, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma.
Chavez is reportedly asking for $1 million in NIL money, and I’m not sure there aren’t better ways to spend that kind of coin.
South Carolina is probably in better shape with Makeer, who might have the biggest upside in the class. She has kept her process pretty quiet and has almost everyone guessing as a result.
– McDowell is having a strong senior season. In November, she set a school record with 48 points and then scored 32 points to take down Etiwanda, the top-ranked program in the country. McDowell is probably going to move up to at least the top 15 when the rankings are redone.
