South Carolina Extends an Offer to Elite 2028 Guard Amel Cook / sportsearchers.com

South Carolina women’s basketball has added another highly-regarded name to its 2028 recruiting board, extending a scholarship offer to guard Amel Cook — a player whose combination of talent and recent perseverance makes her one of the more compelling young prospects in the country.

A ranking that reflects genuine elite status

Cook, a 6-foot-1 guard out of Windward School in Los Angeles, currently sits at No. 6 overall in her class according to Rivals and No. 9 overall per ESPN — rankings that place her firmly among the nation’s top prospects regardless of position, let alone within the guard ranks specifically. Notably, there’s real reason to believe her ESPN ranking could climb even higher in the network’s next update, suggesting evaluators may still be catching up to just how much she’s improved recently.

Bouncing back from a serious injury

What makes Cook’s current standing particularly impressive is the path she took to get there. She missed her entire sophomore season after tearing the meniscus in her left knee — a significant injury that would derail plenty of young prospects’ momentum. Instead, Cook returned to the court this summer at full strength and immediately reestablished herself as one of the top players in the country, helping lead Windward to the Section 7 tournament championship by defeating a trio of traditionally strong programs in Archbishop Mitty, Ontario Christian and Etiwanda along the way. That kind of return — not just recovering physically, but performing at an elevated level against quality competition right out of the gate — speaks to both her natural talent and her mental toughness in working back from a lost season.

Part of a broader recruiting push

South Carolina’s offer to Cook didn’t happen in isolation. The program has been notably active extending scholarship offers since the conclusion of July’s live recruiting period, having already offered 2027 guards Kaylor Buse and Ashley MacCalla earlier in the same week. Cook, however, represents the staff’s first known offer to a 2028 prospect this cycle — an early, deliberate signal that South Carolina views her as a priority target well ahead of most of her classmates.

Development within a program built for it

Cook’s basketball background includes time with Jason Kidd Select, a program established in 2021 under the guidance of Hall of Fame player and current NBA coach Jason Kidd. The program has built a reputation around both competitive success and total-person development, emphasizing teamwork, selflessness and mentorship alongside on-court training. Having come up through an environment explicitly designed to develop “confident young women prepared to succeed on and off the court,” Cook’s off-court maturity in working back from a major injury tracks closely with the values her AAU program has publicly emphasized.

What this offer signals

For South Carolina, extending one of its very first 2028 offers to a top-10 nationally ranked guard — one who’s already proven capable of overcoming real adversity and elevating her team to a championship — reflects the kind of proactive, targeted recruiting approach the program has leaned into in recent cycles. With her recruitment still in its early stages, Cook now becomes a name worth tracking closely as South Carolina continues building out its board for a class that, at this early stage, is already shaping up to include some of the country’s most talented and battle-tested young talent.