The rising sophomore guard is stepping into senior national team competition, continuing a trajectory that caught everyone’s attention in March.
Agot Makeer’s freshman season ended with a breakout NCAA Tournament performance that turned heads across the country. Now, barely weeks removed from that run, she’s training with Canada’s senior women’s national team — a development that underscores just how quickly her star is rising.
Makeer is one of 17 players invited to Canada Basketball’s senior women’s training camp, currently underway in Montreal from June 20-28. For a rising sophomore, earning a seat at that table is no small thing.
The Player Canada Is Getting
The regular-season numbers told one story: 7.3 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game as a freshman. Solid. Promising. But the NCAA Tournament told the real one.
In South Carolina’s postseason run, Makeer averaged 14.0 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 2.3 steals while shooting 46.2% from three — a performance that earned her All-Region recognition and announced her as one of the more dangerous perimeter players in the country when the stage is biggest. Nearly doubling her regular-season scoring average in the NCAA Tournament isn’t a fluke. It’s a statement.
That kind of clutch production is exactly what national team programs are looking for, and Canada has clearly taken notice.
A Proven International Pedigree
This isn’t Makeer’s introduction to international basketball. She holds dual citizenship of the United States and Canada and has chosen to represent Canada on the global stage — a commitment that dates back several years.
It was at the 2024 U17 World Cup that Makeer first announced herself as a genuine prospect. She averaged 17.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 2.3 assists, earned a spot on the All-Star Five, and helped lead Canada to a silver medal. The following summer, at the 2025 U19 World Cup, she helped push Canada to a fourth-place finish — a run that came heartbreakingly close to a bronze medal, with Makeer grabbing a steal in the final second before just missing a game-winning three as time expired.
That sequence — clutch steal, last-second shot — captures something essential about who she is as a competitor. She wants the ball in big moments. The shot didn’t fall, but the instinct was undeniable.
What’s Ahead This Summer
The Montreal camp is only the beginning of a packed international summer for Makeer and the Canadian program. A second training camp in Victoria, British Columbia follows, after which Canada will face UCLA in an exhibition on July 22 — a high-profile tuneup against one of college basketball’s marquee programs.
Canada did not qualify for September’s World Cup, which shifts the program’s focus to the FIBA Women’s Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico from August 17-23. The stakes are significant: the tournament winner advances directly to the FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournaments in March 2028 — the first meaningful step on the road to the LA 2028 Olympics. For Makeer, this summer isn’t just development. It’s potentially the start of an Olympic pathway.
Following a South Carolina Tradition
Should Makeer earn a spot on Canada’s senior roster, she would join a notable lineage of Gamecocks who have represented the country at the highest level.
Laeticia Amihere set the standard, serving as a senior national team member throughout her time at South Carolina and playing in both the 2021 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Olympics — becoming the first South Carolina basketball player to compete in the Olympics while still enrolled. Shay Colley, who played her first semester at South Carolina before transferring, was also part of the Canadian national team picture.
Makeer’s presence at this camp suggests she is on a similar trajectory — and given what she showed in March, the case for her earning meaningful minutes at the senior level this summer is stronger than her age alone might suggest.
What It Means for the Gamecocks
For South Carolina, Makeer’s national team involvement is unambiguously positive. The competition she’ll face — and the coaching she’ll receive — over the next two months will accelerate her development in ways that off-season workouts simply cannot replicate. A player who already looked like a breakout candidate for next season is spending her summer competing against grown professionals.
Dawn Staley’s program has long benefited from players who carry international experience into the college game. If Makeer returns to Columbia in the fall having logged senior national team minutes, she won’t just be a sophomore — she’ll be a seasoned international competitor wearing a Gamecock uniform.
The full training camp roster also includes Kayla Alexander, Jasmine Bascoe, Shay Colley, Shy Day-Wilson, Faith Dut, Yvonne Ejim, Delaney Gibb, Taliyah Henderson, Sami Hill, Avery Howell, Mila Holloway, Myriam Koné, Brynn Masikewich, Cearah Parchment, Shaina Pellington, and Syla Swords.
Camp continues through June 28 in Montreal.
