Dawn Staley Reveals How She Managed Roster Concerns After Loading Up on Talent
South Carolina entered the offseason in a rare position — not a single player left via the transfer portal, meaning Dawn Staley returned seven players from a team that won an SEC regular-season title and reached the national championship game. That group already included three incoming high school signees and transfer guard Jordan Lee, plus the return of forwards Chloe Kitts and Ashlyn Watkins, both of whom missed the entire previous season. By early April, that 13-player roster was already considered among the nation’s best.
Then things got even more crowded. Five-star forward Oliviyah Edwards, ESPN’s No. 3 overall 2026 prospect, requested release from her signing with Tennessee, and South Carolina moved quickly to re-recruit her, officially landing her commitment by April 23.
Adding a player of Edwards’ caliber to an already stacked forward group naturally raised questions among current players — and Staley addressed those concerns directly. Speaking on The Bakari Sellers Show, which aired August 20, Staley described how forward Alicia Tournebize came to her directly, asking what the addition would mean for her role. Staley said she appreciated that approach, and noted that Kelsi Andrews’ parents and Kitts raised similar questions given how loaded the forward position had become.
Staley’s response centered on individuality within the roster. “You have to explain to them how different every single player is,” she said. “Every single player on our team is different.” For Tournebize specifically — who joined South Carolina midseason last year directly from professional basketball in France, filling a critical need when the team had only 10 healthy players — Staley emphasized a shift in mindset now that roster depth has changed. “She has to understand what her power is as well,” Staley said. “She’s 18, 19 years old and sometimes you have to reassure them, like ‘You’re our future.'” Tournebize is one of four South Carolina forwards with 3-4 years of eligibility remaining, alongside Watkins and Kitts, both projected as high 2027 WNBA draft picks, and seniors-to-be Adhel Tac and Joyce Edwards.
The roster kept growing even after Edwards’ addition. Staley soon signed French guard Justine Loubens, pushing the team to 14 players — the largest South Carolina roster since 2021-22, when the team carried 16 including a walk-on. Staley described full buy-in from the group: “Everybody committed to 15.”
That number briefly dipped when presumed starting point guard Maddy McDaniel left the program in August, opening a scholarship spot for just under three weeks before it was filled by transfer guard Brooke Quarles Daniels on August 28 — part of a group of Class of 2022 athletes granted a fifth year of eligibility under a California ruling.
The payoff for all this roster-building has been reflected in national rankings: ESPN rated South Carolina’s freshman class No. 2 overall, while ranking the full team No. 1 in its way-too-early Top 25. Staley made clear that every addition came with buy-in from the locker room rather than being imposed unilaterally: “I’m not just saying ‘F what the team thinks, we’re going to bring this player in,’ no, we have conversations. The more the merrier. No one can play 30 minutes the way that we play or the way we are going to play.”
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