South Carolina women's basketball expected to hire Winston Gandy

South Carolina Women’s Basketball: News • Recruiting • Schedule • Roster • Stats • SEC • Polls • Scholarships

Update: South Carolina made Gandy’s hiring official about an hour after this story was published.

According to multiple reports, South Carolina will hire former Duke assistant Winston Gandy to fill the vacant spot on Dawn Staley’s staff. 

Gandy would replace assistant Fred Chmiel, who was introduced as the head coach at Bowling Green earlier this week. 

The move continues a meteoric rise through the coaching ranks for Gandy, who has been in coaching for just ten years. He began his career as the director of recruiting operations for Brenda Frese at Maryland, where he was a practice player, for the 2013-14 season. Maryland made the first of back-to-back Final Four appearances that season.

Gandy left Maryland for the NBA and spent three years with the Washington Wizards, where he worked with All-Stars John Wall and Bradley Beal.

Gandy returned to women’s college basketball in the spring of 2017 when he was hired as an assistant coach at Rice under coach Tina Langley, another former Maryland assistant. Two years later, Gandy was promoted to associate head coach. 

[Subscribe to Gamecock Central until Aug. 31 for only $29.99!]

In his three seasons with the Owls, Rice qualified for the 2018 WNIT and the 2019 NCAA Tournament, and won the 2020 Conference USA regular season title (the tournament was canceled). The three-year stretch is considered the greatest stretch in Rice program history, and led to Langley getting the Washington job.

In July 2020, Gandy left to become an assistant coach on Kara Lawson’s first staff at Duke. Once again, after two seasons Gandy was elevated to associate head coach. Duke confirmed on Thursday that Gandy had resigned from that position.

Gandy also worked with the USA Basketball 3×3 team, which won gold at the Tokyo Olympics behind former Gamecock Allisha Gray.

Gandy was credited with developing guards Celeste Taylor and Shayeann Day-Wilson, the latter winning ACC Freshman of the Year in 2022. Both players are now in the transfer portal. Day-Wilson has already visited Columbia, and Taylor is expected to visit soon.

With Gandy on staff last season, Duke finished second in the nation in scoring defense, so his defensive acumen is well-established. He is also a highly respected recruiter and Duke and South Carolina went head-to-head for several players over the past three seasons.

In those respects, Gandy is similar to Chmiel. However, there is one significant difference. Gandy primarily works with guards, while Chmiel worked with the Gamecock posts. Staley will have to shuffle position responsibilities to accommodate the change.

[Become a “FAM” Member, support USC women’s basketball]

During Staley’s tenure, she has had a remarkably consistent staff. This is just the fourth change to her staff in 15 seasons.

Lisa Boyer has been on the staff the entire time. Jolette Law replaced Nikki McCray for the 2017-18 season. Chmiel arrived in 2015-16, replacing Darius Taylor, who replaced Carla McGhee in 2010-11. 

Taylor left to get married (his wife is Texas A&M coach Joni Taylor). He has worked as a WNBA assistant coach, interim head coach, and is currently an executive with the Connecticut Sun.

McCray left to be the head coach at Old Dominion. After a successful run, she took over at Mississippi State but resigned after one season because of health concerns. After time off, McCray is currently an assistant at Rutgers.

Chmiel had been associated with Staley off and on for almost 20 years. They first crossed paths in 2005 when Staley played for the Charlotte Sting and Chmiel was an assistant coach. Staley later hired him as one of her assistants at Temple.

Chmiel did not join Staley’s initial staff at South Carolina, but they reunited following the Gamecocks’ first Final Four in 2015. Chmiel worked with the Gamecocks’ post players. He was responsible for tutoring A’ja Wilson and Aliyah Boston, who each became national players of the year. He is also a highly regarded defensive coach.

Discuss South Carolina women’s basketball on The Insiders Forum!