The South Carolina women’s basketball team opens its two-game Sunshine State swing on Thursday at South Florida. Here are five things GamecockCentral will be watching.

1. Who is available?

Hopefully, everybody. 

All 10 players practiced on Wednesday before the team left for Tampa. That doesn’t mean they will all play. All 10 also warmed up before the Penn State game, but South Carolina still held out Madina Okot and Agot Makeer.

We probably won’t know for sure until shortly before tipoff.

2. Snow birds chickens

Thursday’s game completes a two-year home-and-home series with South Florida. South Florida is a perennial NCAA Tournament team, having appeared in nine of the past 12 tournaments, so the series was a win-win for both teams. 

South Florida gets a chance to knock off an elite opponent, and South Carolina gets a fringe Quad 1/Quad 2 game (more on that later).

South Carolina wanted a game to pair with the trip to USF, so it added a one-off game at Florida Gulf Coast, about two hours south on I-75. Like USF, Florida Gulf Coast is a perennial tournament team, having made eight consecutive appearances. 

The games are also sort of homecomings for Chloe Kitts and Ta’Niya Latson. Kitts grew up in Washington but moved to Oviedo in high school. Outside of one year in Atlanta with Raven Johnson, Latson spent most of her life in Florida, first in the Miami area and then at Florida State. 

The game was agreed to before Latson joined the Gamecocks, so her part is a coincidence, but it was done deliberately for Kitts.

“It’s an opportunity to take Chloe back as close as possible,” Staley said. “She will be an assistant coach. We didn’t think she was going to be in that role.”

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3. Defend and rebound

Even without Madina Okot and Agot Makeer, two of its best defenders, South Carolina had one of its best defensive games against Penn State. 

South Carolina limited the Lady Lions to 55 points (27.8 below average), 31.5% shooting (18.9 below average), and 5-26 from three (17.9% below normal). The Gamecocks also held Gracie Merkle, who was 10th in the nation in scoring at 22.3 points, to nine points. 

It was a drastic improvement from the early part of the season, when the Gamecocks were relying on being able to outscore opponents. So much better, Staley half-joked, that they can tell who makes mistakes now.

“We’re much better. Our rotations are better. We’re in the right place,” she said. “You can see the culprit. You can really see who is not doing what they are supposed to do. Before, we couldn’t even create the first layer to our defense. We couldn’t get to those other layers and see who’s not being where they’re supposed to be.”

Next, the Gamecocks need to get better on the boards. The Lady Lions outrebounded the Gamecocks 51-43, and the Gamecocks have failed to win the rebounding battle in three of the past four games.

Getting Okot and her 11.1 rebounds back would help, but South Carolina needs everyone crashing the boards.

4. Days of Graduation

On Monday, Maryam Dauda and Tessa Johnson walked at South Carolina’s graduation ceremony. 

Dauda graduated in August 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in services management and a minor in economics, but did not walk until this week. She is pursuing her master’s degree in retail innovation

Johnson graduated with a degree in psychology in just 2.5 years and will soon begin work on a master’s degree. That is impressive, but it has nothing to do with basketball. However, it’s all the excuse needed to run this quote from Staley.

“I know Tessa doesn’t want to be known as someone that wears a pocket protector,” Staley said, glancing around to see if Johnson was within earshot. “But she is that. She is that.”

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5. Scouting the Bulls 

In addition to last season’s game in Columbia, South Carolina and USF also played in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. There are a lot of familiar faces on both rosters, but a notable one is missing.

Jose Fernandez, who led the Bulls for 25 seasons, resigned to become the head coach of the WNBA Dallas Wings just a week before the 2025-26 season began. His lead assistant, Michele Woods-Baxter took over, so not much has changed. 

“Spread you out, South Florida likes to screen. On ball screens, off ball screens, just a lot of movement. And it’s the same for Florida Gulf Coast,” Staley said. “It broadens our perspective on who we could possibly play (in the NCAA Tournament) and playing those types of teams that move incredibly well without the ball will familiarize ourselves if we ever have to play a team like that.”

It’s still different without Fernandez, one of the most respected and well-liked coaches in the profession, on the bench.

“They run the same stuff, but anytime you lose a coach like Jose who is experienced, has played top teams, has been a top team in the country, you lose an experienced coach,” Staley said. “It’s not to say (Woods-Baxter) isn’t, because she is a disciple of him so they run the same types of things. It would be like us losing Coach Boyer, who has been with us for a long time. I don’t really know what I would do without her.”

USF is just 6-5 this season, so the Bulls aren’t quite the resume-booster South Carolina was expecting. But those losses include games against UCLA and UConn, and the Bulls have a win over Duke to their credit. 

Edyn Battle is USF’s leading scorer at 14.2 points, but she hasn’t played since November 24. Katie Davidson averages 11.3, but Stefanie Ingram (10.9 points) may be the Bulls’ most explosive offensive player. 

Ingram scored 27 points against Duke and 23 in Monday night’s loss at Vanderbilt. She also dishes out a team-best 5.8 assists. 

6-2 forward L’or Mputu averages a near double-double with 10.3 points and 8.7 rebounds. She got a double-double against South Carolina last season with 11 points and 10 rebounds. 

Sammie Puisis was USF’s best player in that game, with 19 points and seven rebounds. Fortunately for South Carolina, Puisis is off to the professional ranks this year.

The Ws

Who: #3 South Carolina (10-1) at South Florida (6-5)
When: 7:00 ET, Thursday, December 18
Where: Yuengling Center, Tampa, FL
Watch: ESPN2