South Carolina women's basketball: National media tabs Gamecocks as title favorites

Now that the transfer portal dust has mostly settled, two national media outlets have picked South Carolina as the favorite to win the 2027 national championship.

Immediately following the season, South Carolina was picked to return to the Final Four, but UConn, Southern Cal, and Texas were more popular picks to finish in front of South Carolina. But the next few weeks changed that.

South Carolina holds the top spot in The Athletic’s post-portal top 25 and is the top overall seed in ESPN’s Bracketology.

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Writing for The Athletic, Sabreena Merchant bumped South Carolina from fourth to first in her revised top 25.

“Teams ahead of them either treaded water … or were Texas,” she wrote. “It’s a return to the South Carolina squads of yore with double-digit rotation depth. After a season when coach Dawn Staley had to let her players work through mistakes, she once again has to manage the egos and minutes of a stacked roster. But it’s one that gives the Gamecocks coaching staff plenty of options.”

ESPN’s Charlie Creme said South Carolina is the clear number one seed.

“The Gamecocks are a significant favorite to win it all,” he wrote. 

South Carolina was one of only two power four teams that did not have any players transfer out (UCLA was the other). On top of retention, South Carolina made two major additions.

Transfer guard Jordan Lee brings athletic scoring and defense from Texas. She averaged 13.2 points along with 2.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists while shooting 34.8% from three last season.

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The Athletic called Lee the best transfer pickup in the country. Not only does she make South Carolina better, but now Texas has to replace its second-leading scorer from last season.

The Gamecocks also picked up former Tennessee commit Oliviyah Edwards. Edwards is a consensus top five recruit who has incredible upside. Edwards gives South Carolina additional frontcourt depth.

Edwards joins incoming freshmen Jerzy Robinson, another top-six recruit, Kaeli Wynn, and Kelsi Andrews in the Gamecocks’ freshman class. The class was already ranked fourth in the country before adding Edwards.

South Carolina also gets All-American Chloe Kitts back from injury and expects forward Ashlyn Watkins to rejoin the team after taking last season off.

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