When Dawn Staley says a player is going to be a professional, you listen. The Hall of Fame coach has seen enough talent walk through her program to know the difference between potential and inevitability — and when it comes to Alicia Tournebize, Staley isn’t hedging her words.
“Ali’s going to be a pro. So her coming in a semester earlier means she’s gonna be a pro quicker,” Staley told The State in February. “She could be a pro next year if she really wanted to be a pro. I don’t know how long we’ll have her. I hope we have her for another three years, but her talent is high level. I know she’s learning and growing, and I know she’ll learn and grow and get stronger here.”
Those are not the words of a coach simply encouraging a young player. Those are the words of someone who has already seen enough to know exactly what she is working with — and what Tournebize is about to become is one of the most compelling development stories in women’s college basketball.
A Player Who Arrived Already Knowing The Work
What makes Tournebize’s story uniquely fascinating is where it begins. Unlike the typical high school recruit arriving in Columbia with raw talent and untested habits, the 6-foot-7 French forward came to South Carolina having already played professional basketball — suiting up for Tango Bourges Basket of the EuroLeague Women before ever stepping foot on a college campus.
Her professional minutes were limited — just over seven per game across eight appearances — but the experience left something far more valuable than statistics. It left pro habits, and South Carolina sports performance coach Molly Binetti noticed them immediately.
“She already knew what she had to do,” Binetti said. “She knew she needed to get stronger. She knew she needed to gain weight. I don’t have to ask her to come work out extra. She comes in on any off day, game days, she comes in and lifts, so she had a pretty solid foundation. She just needs consistency, which is true of all of our freshmen.”
That self-driven mentality — showing up to lift on off days, on game days, without being asked — is exactly the kind of intangible that separates players who have potential from players who actually realize it. Tournebize arrived in Columbia already wired the right way.
Her international pedigree reinforces this further. At the 2025 FIBA U18 Women’s EuroBasket, she averaged nearly a double-double for the French national team — 12.1 points and 8.9 rebounds across seven games. For context, that level of production on an international stage as a teenager is a significant indicator of both skill and composure under pressure.
“She had experience so she actually moves really well for a freshman. You don’t always see that,” Binetti noted.
The Wembanyama Comparison That Says Everything
To understand what this offseason means for Tournebize’s physical development, Binetti reached for a reference point that instantly communicates the challenge and the opportunity — Victor Wembanyama.
The comparison is striking but apt. Like the 2024 NBA Rookie of the Year, Tournebize possesses a slender, extraordinarily long frame — in her case, 6-foot-7 with limbs that create matchup problems that most opponents simply aren’t equipped to handle. And just as Wembanyama’s development trajectory in the NBA has been defined in part by the gradual, careful process of adding functional mass to his elite frame, Tournebize’s growth at South Carolina follows a remarkably similar path.
“Obviously, when you’re that tall and you have such long limbs, I kind of look at her as someone like a Wemby — she’s got really good body control and movement but needs to gain a little bit of mass,” Binetti said.
Associate head coach Lisa Boyer was quick to add important context — Tournebize is not weak. She simply needs the kind of additional strength that allows a player to withstand the physical grind of SEC basketball night after night. That is a very different problem to solve than starting from scratch.
The approach to getting there is intentional and patient. Nutrition has been a key component, with Tournebize navigating the adjustment to new foods and new fueling strategies with the same diligence she brings to the weight room.
“It helps when you have a background in it,” Binetti said. “So you come in and you already know how to train. I think just introducing her to new things and I think the nutrition part of it, too. Obviously, you’re adjusting to different foods, you find stuff that you like, you’re figuring out how to balance that. But she’s done really well so far.”
Critically, Binetti is also clear-eyed about what the end goal actually looks like — this isn’t about turning Tournebize into something she is not.
“You can’t rush it. Same with anybody, you don’t want to put weight on them just to put weight on them. She’s never going to be somebody that’s huge the way Agot (Makeer) and Chloe (Kitts) are — but it’s just getting her to understand how to use her body better. And that just comes with time.”
The On-Court Reality — Enormous Upside, Some Rough Edges
Tournebize’s freshman numbers — 4.0 points and 3.4 rebounds in 12.5 minutes across 20 games — don’t tell the full story of what she is capable of, but they do tell an honest story of where she currently is. There were moments this past season where, despite her extraordinary height advantage, she was outmuscled in the paint by more physically developed opponents. The SEC is unforgiving in that regard, and it exposed areas that need sharpening.
Boyer was candid about the on-court adjustments required, particularly around physicality and discipline.
“We got to get her to stay long, trying to get her not to reach — that kind of stuff. Stuff that they would probably get away with over there, they don’t get away with it here,” Boyer said. “She can’t lean in. … Stay big, stay tall. Use your length. She has pretty good quickness, especially for her size. The sky’s the limit for her. She’s got a real, really, really good shot. She’s got a pretty shot, and she’s fundamentally sound.”
That phrase — “the sky’s the limit” — is not coaching speak when you unpack what Tournebize already brings to the table. She can spot up and knock down three-pointers at 6-foot-7, which is a weapon that defenses at any level struggle to account for. If she can combine that perimeter shooting with improved physicality in the paint on both ends of the floor, she becomes a player that is genuinely impossible to guard in any conventional sense.
A center who can step out and drain threes, finish inside, rebound, and defend with length and quickness? That is the blueprint for an elite modern big — and Tournebize has the tools to become exactly that.
What This Offseason Actually Means
Here is the critical detail that changes everything for Tournebize’s trajectory: she joined South Carolina mid-season, meaning she had to learn Staley’s system, adjust to a new country, new teammates, new coaching staff, and a new level of competition — all simultaneously and all on the fly. The fact that she performed as well as she did under those circumstances is actually a more impressive indicator of her ceiling than her stats suggest.
This summer marks the first time she will go through a complete offseason with the Gamecocks — structured training, full integration into Binetti’s year-round conditioning program, relationship building, and the kind of uninterrupted development time that every freshman needs but Tournebize was never afforded in her first semester.
“It’s huge. … The more time we can really have to build, the better,” Binetti said simply.
The relationship component matters too. Binetti emphasized that the offseason isn’t just about physical gains — it is about trust, communication, and collaboration.
“I think it’s like building the relationship, too. Getting familiar with her, her getting familiar with me. Introducing her to finding out what she already likes to do and what she feels like helps her, and then finding new ways to kind of build off that. I always want this to be a place where they have a say in their process. That’s really important to me.”
What To Expect In 2026-27
Heading into next season, Tournebize figures to slot in as one of the first post players off the bench behind Joyce Edwards and potentially Chloe Kitts — a role that should give her meaningful minutes in a lower-pressure context while continuing to build her confidence and physicality at the SEC level.
But if this offseason goes the way everyone around the program expects it to, that role could expand significantly as the season progresses. A more physically developed, more system-fluent, more confident Tournebize is a different player entirely from the one who arrived mid-season trying to learn everything at once.
The Bottom Line
Alicia Tournebize is not a project. She is a timeline. The foundation is already there — the pro habits, the international experience, the shooting touch, the movement skills, the self-motivation. What this offseason provides is simply the uninterrupted time and structure to let all of those qualities compound into something that begins to approach what Dawn Staley already sees when she looks at her rising sophomore.
And when the coach who has built one of the most dominant dynasties in women’s college basketball history looks at a player and says she could be a professional right now — at 18 years old — that is not a compliment. That is a warning to every program that will face South Carolina next season.
Alicia Tournebize is just getting started. 🏀
