The national championship loss to UCLA stings, but the draft projections that followed offer a different kind of testament to what Dawn Staley built in Columbia this season. Three South Carolina players — Raven Johnson, Ta’Niya Latson, and Madina Okot — are projected as first-round picks by both CBS Sports and The Sporting News, a remarkable haul that underscores the program’s status as the premier finishing school for professional prospects in women’s college basketball.
Raven Johnson: The First Gamecock Off the Board
Both outlets agree that Johnson goes first among the South Carolina contingent. CBS Sports has her at No. 6 overall to the expansion Toronto Tempo. The Sporting News slots her one spot later at No. 7 to the expansion Portland Fire. In either scenario, she’s a top-ten pick — and a strong case can be made that the projections are conservative.
Johnson spent five years in Columbia, and the record during her time speaks for itself. The Gamecocks went 145-8 when she was active, appeared in four national championship games, and won two titles. She was part of the program’s identity in the most fundamental sense — not as a scorer, but as the defensive and organizational backbone that made everything else function.
At the professional level, what translates most reliably from college is elite, consistent defense. Johnson has that. Her ability to pressure ball handlers, disrupt passing lanes, and guard without fouling are skills that age well and travel across competition levels. Her offensive inconsistency was always the counterargument, but WNBA rosters are built around role clarity — and her role is one that winning franchises genuinely need. Expansion teams, in particular, building from scratch with an emphasis on culture and defensive identity, make a great deal of sense as landing spots.
Ta’Niya Latson: The Transfer Who Became More
Latson’s professional trajectory is one of the more compelling development stories of the college season. She arrived at South Carolina as the nation’s leading scorer at Florida State — a prolific offensive player whose one-dimensional reputation was as much a liability as an asset at the next level. What she became in Columbia is a more interesting and more valuable prospect.
CBS Sports projects her at No. 10 to the Indiana Fever, where she would join former Gamecocks Aliyah Boston and Bree Hall — a South Carolina pipeline within a single franchise. The Sporting News is slightly lower at No. 12 to the Connecticut Sun.
The Indiana projection carries particular intrigue. The Fever, already building around Caitlin Clark, have a clear need for perimeter players who can score, draw fouls, and hold up defensively. Latson checks all three boxes in a way she simply didn’t a year ago. Her improved defensive engagement and offensive efficiency at South Carolina — operating within a system rather than carrying one — made her a more complete player and, by extension, a more attractive professional prospect. That kind of development is exactly what scouts want to see from a transfer: evidence of growth, not just production.
Madina Okot: The Double-Double Machine With an Asterisk
Okot’s projections — No. 11 to the Washington Mystics per The Sporting News, No. 13 to the Atlanta Dream per CBS Sports — reflect a player who did everything South Carolina asked of her and then some. She tied for the national lead among power conference players with 22 double-doubles, filled the post void the Gamecocks needed filled, and added a top-of-the-key jumper to her offensive repertoire that meaningfully expanded her professional profile.
The Atlanta projection comes with an interesting subplot — former Gamecocks Allisha Gray and Te-Hina Paopao already play for the Dream, which would make South Carolina’s influence on that franchise substantial if Okot lands there.
The asterisk, of course, is her ongoing NCAA eligibility appeal. Okot is seeking a waiver to return to South Carolina for another season, and that appeal has a direct bearing on whether she enters this draft at all. If the waiver is granted and she returns, her professional timeline shifts by a year. If it isn’t, she enters what projects to be a favorable draft position. The 48-hour declaration window means this situation will resolve quickly — but until it does, her name on any draft board comes with a contingency.
Maryam Dauda: The Quiet Professional
Dauda doesn’t appear in the first-round projections, but her eligibility for the 2026 WNBA Draft is worth acknowledging. After transferring from Arkansas, she served as a reserve post for two seasons, using her 6-4 frame and long arms to contribute in rebounding and shot-blocking without complaint or fanfare.
Her professional path is less clearly defined than the three projected first-rounders, but players who demonstrate positional size, defensive tools, and the ability to function within a disciplined system tend to find opportunities at the next level. The 2026 draft gives her additional time to develop her offensive game — the one area where her college numbers left room for growth.
What This Means for the Program
Three projected first-round picks from a single roster — four if Dauda develops into a genuine prospect — is not an accident. It is the direct result of a program that actively improves players’ draft stock rather than simply showcasing talent that was already there.
Latson is the clearest illustration. She came to South Carolina as a scorer and left as a prospect. That transformation, from one-dimensional to genuinely versatile, is the kind of thing that builds recruiting classes. High-level transfers looking to maximize their professional value watched what Latson became in Columbia over one season, and at least some of them will draw the obvious conclusion. Dawn Staley didn’t just coach South Carolina to the national championship game — she coached three players into the first round of the WNBA Draft. For anyone watching from the outside, that is a very compelling argument.
