Dawn Staley’s Injury Report: Adhel Tac Out, Tessa Johnson raises Concern Ahead of Missouri Matchup
COLUMBIA, S.C. — As South Carolina women’s basketball prepares to close out its regular-season home schedule Thursday night against Missouri, Dawn Staley’s program continues to navigate the injury attrition that has quietly defined — and tested — a championship-caliber season.
The news heading into Senior Night is not alarming, but it is a reminder that the Gamecocks have rarely, if ever, operated at full strength during what has otherwise been a dominant 2025-26 campaign.
Adhel Tac: Still Out, But Making the Best of It
Adhel Tac did not play for the fourth straight game against Ole Miss and did not dress for the third straight game — and Thursday’s contest against Missouri appears set to follow the same pattern. The 6-foot-5 sophomore forward/center remains unavailable, though the nature of her current injury has not been formally disclosed by the program.
What has been visible is a player making the most of a difficult circumstance. She was seen riding around on a scooter during warmups ahead of the Ole Miss game, and by all accounts her spirits remain intact despite the extended absence. For a player whose entire journey to Columbia has been defined by navigating injury, that resilience is entirely in character.
Tac was out against Southern Cal and again when USC played Coppin State — that one with a nasal injury — and has now missed four consecutive games with an undisclosed issue, during which time she has had her left foot in a boot and begun using a scooter to get around. On3
The broader context of Tac’s situation at South Carolina carries its own weight. She enrolled last January to rehab a dislocated kneecap and ligament damage suffered early in her senior high school season South Carolina Athletics , meaning she has spent the better part of two years in rehabilitation under the Gamecocks’ medical staff rather than on the court contributing. Through all of it, her engagement with the program has remained a constant. Staley and her coaches have tried to keep Tac involved in scouting reports, and during a film session before the LSU championship game, while teammates sat in silence when asked about LSU’s ball-screen actions, it was Tac who answered correctly — a detail that speaks to her basketball intelligence even while sidelined. LSU Athletics
When healthy, the coaching staff’s belief in her potential has been unwavering. “I equate her defensively to Aliyah Boston,” Staley has said of Tac. “She’s communicative, she’s high IQ, and she can move.” That evaluation makes her continued absence all the more frustrating — not just for the player, but for a program preparing to run deep into March.
Her timeline for return remains unclear, though with the regular season winding down and the SEC Tournament beginning March 6th, the Gamecocks’ medical staff will be working carefully to balance urgency with caution on what has already been a physically complicated chapter of Tac’s career.
Tessa Johnson: Minor Issue, No Red Flags
The other name drawing attention in Thursday’s injury update is sophomore guard Tessa Johnson, who left practice early on Thursday. However, Staley was quick to provide reassurance, characterizing it as a minor issue — and notably, Johnson did not appear on the official availability report, suggesting there is no genuine concern about her status for the game.
Staley has had six different starting lineups this year due to injuries, as Tessa Johnson, McDaniel, Okot, Makeer, Latson and Tac have all missed at least one game this season. gamecocksonline That list of names underscores just how relentlessly this program has been tested by the injury bug. The fact that South Carolina sits at 27-2 and has already clinched the SEC regular-season title with games to spare is, in that context, a genuine achievement of roster management and depth.
For now, Thursday’s Tessa Johnson situation appears to be precisely what Staley described it as — minor, contained, and not worth significant concern.
Staley’s Message: “A” Game Regardless
With the SEC regular-season title already secured and Thursday’s game against a Missouri team that has lost four straight carrying significantly less postseason weight than earlier matchups on the schedule, one might reasonably wonder whether the Gamecocks will approach the night with a somewhat reduced edge.
Staley addressed that directly — and her answer was unambiguous.
“The focus is winning, but at the same time, it’s doing it the way we need to do it,” Staley said. “Executing our preparation and ensuring that we don’t put the game in front of doing it the right way.”
The distinction Staley draws here is subtle but meaningful. She is not simply saying the team will try to win. She is saying the method matters as much as the result — that with the SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament approaching, the habits cultivated in these final regular-season games carry weight that goes beyond the scoreboard. A sloppy win over Missouri that produces careless turnovers or defensive lapses is, in Staley’s framework, a problem regardless of the final score.
It is the kind of standard that championship programs hold themselves to even when the immediate stakes do not demand it — and it is precisely why South Carolina has won 136 of its last 143 games heading into Thursday night.
The Bigger Picture
South Carolina has lost 57 player games to injury, illness, or suspension this season On3 — a staggering number for any program, let alone one competing for a national championship. That the Gamecocks have absorbed those losses and still wrapped up their fifth consecutive SEC regular-season title is a testament to the depth Staley has built and the culture that sustains it through adversity.
“We went through a lot of trials and tribulations this season with the injuries and illnesses, so thank God that we’re in the position that we’re in and we just got to follow through,” Ta’Niya Latson said after clinching the title against Ole Miss — a sentiment that captures precisely where this program stands as it enters the final stretch of what has been a far more tested season than its record suggests.
Thursday night is Senior Night. The championship banner is already being prepared. And Dawn Staley’s message to her team is the same it has always been — show up, execute, and do it the right way.
Everything else takes care of itself.
Source: on3, gamecocksonline
