South Carolina women's basketball: Has Dawn Staley assembled her most talented team ever?

After top-five recruit Oliviyah Edwards flipped her commitment from Tennessee to South Carolina last week, the hot take was that Dawn Staley has assembled her most talented team ever. But does that hold up?

The 2026-27 team is still all about potential. It includes four players who have never played a college game and two key players who are coming off uneven freshmen campaigns. That means comparing the team to any previous squad is comparing apples and oranges.

The 2021-22 Gamecocks probably hold the current title as South Carolina’s most talented team. They lost just two games all season and won a national championship. That team also benefitted from a one-year NCAA waiver on roster limits and had 16 players.

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The team was primarily comprised of the 2019 “Freshies” recruiting class and the 2021 recruiting class, which had three of the top four recruits that year. But its biggest claim to greatness is that there were 11 future WNBA draft picks on that roster. 

That’s more draft picks on one roster than SEC programs Auburn (four), Arkansas (seven), Mississippi State (nine), and Ole Miss (nine) have had all time, and almost as many as Alabama (12), Kentucky (12), and Vanderbilt (13) have had. (Clemson has had three WNBA draft picks, since you asked.)

Obviously, only time will tell how many draft picks are on the 2026-27 team, but that is a high bar to reach.

The 2021-22 team also has an ace up its sleeve: Aliyah Boston. Boston was a number one overall draft pick, a national player of the year, and a four-time All-American. She has a case as the best South Carolina women’s basketball player ever.

Maybe Joyce Edwards will end up at that level. She’s already one of the most prolific scorers in Gamecock history. Or maybe one of the new faces, like Agot Makeer, Alicia Tournebize, Oliviyah Edwards, or Jerzy Robinson, is a budding superstar. Nobody knows.

Here’s how the rosters compare. You be the judge:

2021-22 Roster
Laeticia Amihere, Brea Beal, Aliyah Boston, Kamilla Cardoso, Zia Cooke, Sania Feagin, Lele Grissett, Bree Hall, Destanni Henderson, Raven Johnson, Destiny Littleton, Saniya Rivers, Eniya Russell, Victoria Saxton, Olivia Thompson, Elysa Wesolek

McDonald’s All-Americans: 11 (Amihere was ineligible because she enrolled early.)

ESPN Recruiting Rankings: (Average rank – 25; Eight top-10 recruits)
2 (Johnson ‘21)
3 (Rivers ‘21, Boston ‘19)
4 (Feagin ‘21, Cooke ‘19)
5 (Cardoso ‘20)
6 (Henderson ‘18)
10 (Amihere ‘19)
11 (Beal ‘19)
14 (Hall ‘21)
23 (Grissett ‘17)
33 (Littleton ‘17)
43 (Russell ‘20)
47 (Saxton ‘18)
Unranked: Thompson, Wesolek*

All-Americans: Six players (12 appearances)
Boston (Four times, all first-team), Cooke (Three times, two honorable mention, third team), Henderson (One time, third team), Cardoso (Two times, honorable mention and first team), Beal (One time, honorable mention), Johnson (One time, honorable mention/first team)

All-SEC: Five Players (12 appearances)
Boston, Cooke, Cardoso, Henderson, and Johnson were All-SEC players. Boston was a two-time SEC Player of the Year and four-time SEC Defensive Player of the Year; Cardoso was a Defensive Player of the Year.

WNBA Draft Picks: 11

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2026-27 Roster
Kelsi Andrews, Joyce Edwards, Oliviyah Edwards, Tessa Johnson, Chloe Kitts, Jordan Lee, Agot Makeer, Maddy McDaniel, Ayla McDowell, Jerzy Robinson, Adhel Tac, Alicia Tournebize, Ashlyn Watkins, Kaeli Wynn

McDonald’s All-Americans: 9 (Kitts, Tac, and Tournebize were ineligible because they enrolled early. Andrews and Wynn were injured.)

ESPN Recruiting Rankings: (Average rank – 14; Five top-10 recruits)
3 (Oliviyah Edwards ‘26, Joyce Edwards ‘24)
6 (Robinson ‘26, Makeer ‘25) 
9 (Lee ‘24)
12 (Watkins ‘22)
14 (McDaniel ‘24)
15 (McDowell ‘25)
17 (Kitts ‘23)
19 (Wynn ‘26)
25 (Johnson ‘23)
28 (Tac ‘24)
30 (Andrews ‘26)
Not ranked: Tournebize*

All-Americans: Two players (Three appearances)
Kitts (One time, honorable mention), Edwards (Two times, honorable mention and second team)

All-SEC: Three players (Four appearances)
Watkins, Edwards, and Johnson were All-SEC. 

(*Thompson and Wesolek were not in the top 100, so they did not get a ranking. Tournebize was not ranked because European players are not included in ESPN rankings. For the team average rankings, Thompson and Wesolek were given a ranking of 101. Tournebize was omitted completely.)

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