Dawn Staley didn’t just have a good offseason. She had one for the history books.
In a college basketball landscape increasingly defined by roster chaos, NIL bidding wars, and the revolving door of the transfer portal, South Carolina’s head coach navigated the 2026 offseason with a level of precision that left the rest of the sport — including rival coaches — shaking their heads in disbelief.
“It’s hard to imagine the portal season going for any coach better than it did for Coach Staley,” South Carolina athletic director Jeremiah Donati said on April 27. “I had colleagues from all over the country reaching out to me saying, ‘Wow, that’s a super team.'”
The numbers back that up. Staley secured four top-30 recruits from the 2026 high school class, headlined by five-star forward Oliviyah Edwards — a 6-foot-3 prospect ranked No. 3 overall nationally. She then reached into the transfer portal and landed Jordan Lee, a 6-foot guard from Texas ranked No. 2 among all available transfers, who The Athletic named the top portal fit of the entire cycle on April 28. Perhaps most remarkably in the current environment, Staley did all of this without losing a single player to the portal herself — the only SEC women’s coach who can make that claim.
“Not having any kids transfer out of the program in this day and age is almost unheard of. So just really, really proud of her and the team’s efforts to keep it rolling,” Donati said.
That retention piece deserves more credit than it typically gets. Retaining a championship roster while simultaneously upgrading it is the dual challenge that separates sustainable programs from one-year wonders. Staley accomplished both simultaneously.
What South Carolina Is Actually Returning
The incoming additions only tell half the story. Before Staley made a single portal move, she was already sitting on one of the most talented rosters in the country.
Seven players return from the national championship roster. Joyce Edwards, who averaged 19.2 points per game, anchors the offense. Tessa Johnson returns as one of the nation’s elite perimeter shooters — she led the SEC in three-point percentage and ranked fourth nationally. Agot Makeer demonstrated her big-game ability by scoring between 10 and 18 points in every single March Madness game last season. And at 6-foot-7, center Alicia Tournebize gives South Carolina a frontcourt presence that few teams can match.
Beyond the returners, the Gamecocks are also getting two critical players back from ACL injuries — 2025 SEC Tournament MVP Chloe Kitts and versatile star forward Ashlyn Watkins, both of whom missed the entire 2025-26 season. Their returns alone would have been enough to generate serious preseason buzz.
How the Rankings Unfolded — and Why They Got It Wrong Initially
The “way too early” preseason polls published the morning after the national title game largely missed on South Carolina. ESPN, The Athletic, and USA TODAY all ranked UConn ahead of the Gamecocks — a curious choice given that South Carolina had just beaten the Huskies and No. 1 overall WNBA draft pick Azzi Fudd in the Final Four. USA TODAY went further, placing Southern Cal at No. 1, banking heavily on the return of star guard JuJu Watkins from injury, the continued development of National Freshman of the Year Jazzy Davidson, and the addition of No. 1 overall recruit Saniyah Hall.
Those early rankings were published before Staley’s portal moves materialized, at a moment when the picture looked considerably less rosy for the Gamecocks. Three starters — Raven Johnson, Ta’Niya Latson, and Madina Okot — had declared for the WNBA draft, along with reserve forward Maryam Dauda. Factoring in ESPN’s outdated recruit rankings at the time, South Carolina’s incoming freshmen were listed as the No. 6, No. 18, and No. 30 overall prospects — strong, but not dominant.
Two weeks changed everything.
By April 27, The Athletic had moved South Carolina all the way from No. 4 to No. 1, with UConn and Southern Cal holding at No. 2 and No. 3 respectively. The same outlets that once overlooked the Gamecocks are now expected to follow suit as updated rankings account for Edwards’ commitment.
Texas’ Loss Is South Carolina’s Gain
Jordan Lee’s departure from Texas illustrates the zero-sum nature of the transfer portal at the highest level. Lee didn’t leave a struggling program — she left the team that was ranked No. 1 in the country just two weeks before South Carolina claimed that spot. But Lee wasn’t alone in leaving Austin. Point guard Rori Harmon and reserve center Kyla Oldacre exhausted their eligibility. Starting forward Justice Carlton and bench contributor Aaliyah Crump, who averaged 7.9 points, both transferred. The result was a stunning collapse in the rankings, dropping the Longhorns from No. 1 all the way to No. 13 in The Athletic’s Top 25.
What Texas lost, South Carolina absorbed. Lee joining an already loaded backcourt fundamentally alters the Gamecocks’ offensive ceiling and provides Staley with the kind of transfer portal reinforcement that previously eluded her dynasty.
The Competition Is Real — But the Gap Is Growing
UConn and Southern Cal aren’t pretenders. The Huskies return National Player of the Year Sarah Strong and added freshman Olivia Vukosa, the No. 2 ranked prospect in the country, even after losing two players through the portal without adding replacements. CBS Sports kept UConn at No. 1 as recently as April 21. Southern Cal, meanwhile, gets a healthy JuJu Watkins back alongside Jazzy Davidson and the nation’s top recruit in Saniyah Hall — an argument for redemption after an 18-14 season in 2025-26.
The programs are talented. The question is whether they have the depth, the experience, and the coaching to match what Staley has constructed.
South Carolina has been to six consecutive Final Fours, three straight national championship games, and has won 10 straight SEC regular-season titles. That’s not a coincidence — it’s a system. And right now, that system just got significantly more powerful heading into 2026-27.
