A Group Defined by Potential, Perseverance, and High Stakes
COLUMBIA, S.C. — When evaluating where South Carolina women’s basketball stands heading into the 2026-27 season, the conversation inevitably centers on Joyce Edwards, the portal additions, and the program’s continued pursuit of a national championship. But buried beneath those headline narratives is a group of forwards whose collective health, development, and readiness may ultimately determine whether this team reaches its ceiling — or falls short of it.
From a returning ace center navigating a torn ACL to a 6-7 sophomore with generational physical tools still learning how to use them, Dawn Staley’s frontcourt entering next season is equal parts proven excellence and unresolved question mark. Here is an honest, position-by-position accounting of what South Carolina has, what it needs, and what to expect.
Joyce Edwards: Building a Legacy, Eliminating the Disappearing Acts
Start with the player whose ceiling is the highest and whose trajectory is the most important. Joyce Edwards is, by every measurable standard, one of the best players in college basketball. Last season she set South Carolina’s single-season record for total points across 40 games, averaging 19.2 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.8 steals, and 1.1 blocks per game. She was dominant against TCU and UConn — two programs not accustomed to being dominated — and throughout the season showed a genuine ability to take over games when the moment demanded it.
The improvement she showed from her freshman to sophomore season was also real and significant. Her defense, rebounding, and playmaking all took meaningful steps forward, suggesting a player who is not coasting on natural talent but actively working to expand her game.
But there is an honest critique embedded in this résumé that must be addressed directly, because Edwards herself surely knows it: there were games when Edwards ended up being a non-factor. She always bounced back with a huge game, but she shouldn’t need a bad game to spark a big game. That pattern — dormancy followed by explosion — is the one remaining crack in an otherwise exceptional profile. At the elite level, where a single bad game in March can end a season, that inconsistency is not a minor footnote. It is the primary obstacle between Edwards and true all-time status.
The opportunity in front of her is staggering. She has a chance to join Sheila Foster, A’ja Wilson, and Aliyah Boston as one of the best Gamecocks ever. The pathway is clear: eliminate the disappearing performances, add a more confident three-point shot to open up the interior, and trust that the supporting cast around her is capable enough to share the load. With more help arriving in the form of portal additions and returning talent, Edwards most likely won’t average nearly 20 points a game next season — but she is building her resume as an all-time great, and despite the extra help next season, Edwards will still be a focal point. The number will shrink. The impact should not.
Chloe Kitts: A Competitor Fighting Back from Her Biggest Challenge
If Joyce Edwards represents South Carolina’s offensive engine, Chloe Kitts has long represented its competitive soul. The redshirt senior is a supreme competitor who never backs down — a player whose intangibles show up most clearly in the moments that separate good teams from great ones. Her list of accomplishments is extensive: SEC Tournament MVP, NCAA Tournament Regional Most Outstanding Player, South Carolina’s top rebounder two seasons ago, and the author of a triple-double late last season that reminded everyone watching exactly how complete her game has become. She even added a three-point shot — shooting 33.3 percent from beyond the arc — a development with direct implications for her WNBA future, where her slender frame for a forward will require her shooting ability to carry more weight.
But the dominant storyline surrounding Kitts this offseason is not her offensive evolution. It is her recovery from a torn ACL suffered at the beginning of October 2025 — a devastating injury for any player, and particularly cruel in its timing, robbing Kitts of what should have been a full senior season campaign.
The key to her return might be not getting too far ahead of herself. That caution is well-founded: when she was spotted shooting jumpers after practice late last season, she got in trouble because she hadn’t been cleared to jump yet. Kitts’ relentless competitive drive — the very quality that makes her invaluable — can also work against her in a rehabilitation process that demands patience above all else. The greatest risk to her recovery is not physical. It is the psychological impulse to push harder and faster than the body is ready to handle.
The projection here is both honest and optimistic: Kitts’ knee will decide how much she can do next season, but whatever she can do, Kitts will make South Carolina better. If nothing else, her competitive spirit will be a boost to a team that occasionally seemed to need a spark last season. That last clause is important. South Carolina’s occasional flatness last year was a genuine issue, and Kitts — even at 80 percent of her full capability — injects an urgency and accountability into practice and game environments that elevates everyone around her.
Nobody has shown more consistent season-to-season progress than Kitts. That track record of self-improvement suggests that even a recovery season will produce growth. The question is simply how much of her physically is available — and that answer will unfold through fall camp.
Ashlyn Watkins: Returning from 22 Months Away
In the 2023-24 undefeated national championship season, Ashlyn Watkins was arguably South Carolina’s best defender — and that is a staggering statement given the competition for that title on a roster that included Kamilla Cardoso, who won the SEC Defensive Player of the Year award that season. Watkins grabbed 20 rebounds in the Final Four against NC State and has four career dunks, including one over Sedona Prince, the nation’s leading shot-blocker, in 2024. She is an elite shot-blocker, a physical rebounder, and a defensive presence who changes the calculus of any team trying to score near the basket against South Carolina.
She also tore her ACL — and by the time the 2026-27 season opens in November, it will have been 22 months since her last game.
That is an enormous amount of time away from competitive basketball for a player whose game is so heavily physical and athletically dependent. Shot-blocking at the level Watkins demonstrated requires explosiveness, timing, and body trust — all qualities that a prolonged ACL recovery can erode and must be systematically rebuilt. The honest offseason mandate is straightforward: Watkins needs to get her knee fully healthy and then get into game shape. After that, she can worry about other things.
The notable detail that offers the most genuine reassurance is this: Watkins was around the team during her one-year sabbatical, and the program felt comfortable enough in her return that they did not try to find another post in the transfer portal. That is a meaningful endorsement. Dawn Staley is not in the business of leaving roster positions to hope — if Staley was not confident in Watkins’ return, she would have filled the spot. The fact that she did not speaks louder than any rehabilitation update could.
The ceiling for a fully healthy Watkins is transformative. Her defensive impact at the rim, combined with Edwards drawing attention in the post, creates matchup nightmares for opponents that have no clean answer. The question is simply whether 22 months away can be overcome quickly enough to matter when March comes around. Watkins should give South Carolina a shot-blocking, rebounding, and defensive presence — and for a team with championship ambitions, that presence could be decisive.
Alicia Tournebize: The 6-7 Wildcard With Untapped Potential
Of all the players on South Carolina’s forward roster, Alicia Tournebize carries the largest gap between current production and theoretical ceiling — and bridging that gap this offseason may be one of the most important developmental storylines the program is tracking.
The physical profile alone is extraordinary. Tournebize isn’t just 6-7; she also has a 6-10 wingspan — measurements that simply do not exist at most programs in women’s college basketball. She can cover so much ground defensively that her mere presence makes an impact. She dunks with more ease than anyone other than Brittney Griner, and she is a fluid ballhandler and shooter for her size — a combination of tools that, in a fully developed package, would constitute one of the most difficult matchups in the country.
The honest assessment of where she is right now, however, must acknowledge the gap between those tools and their application. Tournebize is thin and not particularly strong, which prevents her from playing to her size. Smaller players are able to get into her lower body and knock her off-balance — a critical vulnerability for a player whose entire impact depends on operating confidently in traffic and at the rim. And as good as her shot looks in warmups or against open looks, she doesn’t shoot well under defensive pressure — a limitation that caps her perimeter effectiveness in precisely the moments it matters most.
Her freshman season was, in context, a reasonable debut — she appeared in 20 games, averaged 12.5 minutes, and showed enough flashes to keep the optimism justified. But as a freshman, she didn’t always play like she was 6-7. Some of that was physical, and some of it was mental. She was thrust into an extremely difficult position last season and did well, but she needs to play with more confidence. That combination — physical immaturity and mental hesitation — is correctable. Strength and conditioning work can address the former; accumulated experience and coaching can address the latter.
South Carolina is hoping that Tournebize makes a big jump this offseason. If the physical development and mental confidence converge — if Tournebize arrives in November having added functional strength, expanded her shot-making range under pressure, and internalized the belief that her size is an advantage rather than a target — she could be a walking mismatch if all goes right. The upside is real. The work between now and tip-off will determine whether it becomes a reality.
Adhel Tac: The Locker Room Anchor
Every championship roster needs players whose value transcends the stat sheet, and Adhel Tac fills that role for South Carolina. On a per-minute basis, Tac was one of the team’s top rebounders, shot-blockers, and finishers last season — a true post presence at 6-5 who plays to her size in a way that becomes increasingly rare as the game trends toward positionless basketball. She is also one of the smartest players on the team and a valued locker room presence — the kind of high-character, high-IQ player that coaches rely on to maintain standards when the staff’s eyes cannot be everywhere at once.
The limitations are real and should not be minimized. Tac doesn’t move particularly well, which makes her hard to play in games against teams without a traditional post — which, at the highest level of women’s college basketball, is most of them. She also missed the last two months of the season with a stress reaction in her foot, adding injury uncertainty to mobility questions that were already present.
Her offseason mandate is simple in concept if difficult in execution: Tac needs to get healthy. Her latest injury is a bit of a mystery, and whatever it takes to resolve it must be the priority above everything else. If she arrives healthy, Tac provides a legitimate matchup option against the rare opponent who plays a traditional big. More likely, though, her greatest contribution will be as a locker room leader and coach-in-uniform — absorbing Staley’s system at the deepest level and transmitting it to the younger players around her.
The Big Picture
Taken together, South Carolina’s returning forward group is defined by an unusual mixture of elite proven production, significant injury question marks, and extraordinary unrealized potential. Edwards is the star around whom everything is organized. Kitts and Watkins are proven contributors fighting back from major injuries on uncertain timelines. Tournebize is a physical marvel still growing into her body and her belief. Tac is a stabilizing presence whose health will determine her role.
For Dawn Staley to achieve the championship that has eluded her program the past two seasons, this group does not need to be perfect. But it needs to be healthy, hungry, and honest about the work still required. The tools are here. The will has never been in question. What happens between now and November will determine everything.
