Bianca Cuevas-Moore injury, redshirt update

When South Carolina women’s basketball announced on Dec. 17 that senior guard Bianca Cuevas-Moore would miss the 2017-2018 campaign with an ACL injury, most Gamecock fans assumed she would take a redshirt season and return for a fifth year.

Not so fast.

While USC head coach Dawn Staley has not explicitly ruled out a medical redshirt for Cuevas-Moore, a speedy guard who played a crucial role in the Gamecocks’ national title run last March and April, comments she made Tuesday during her “Carolina Calls” seemed to indicate that the possibility of Cuevas-Moore leaving a year of eligibility on the table is not far-fetched.

“Our first concern is just making sure that Bianca gets back,” Staley said when asked by a fan if the team and Cuevas-Moore had agreed to have her return next year. “She’s supposed to have surgery within days. And we’ll see how that knee ends up and we’ll revisit that when it’s time for us to revisit that. We’ve got to see how that knee ends up.

“But we don’t want to put our players in the position where they’ll hurt themselves. I think Bianca has aspirations of being a pro, and I don’t know what coming back would do for her, whether it would be beneficial for her or she may want to just heal up and go right away to being a professional.”

A similar situation unfolded last offseason, as transfers Kaela Davis and Allisha Gray both decided to forego fifth years and enter the WNBA Draft. Both were taken in the first round.

Early WNBA mock drafts don’t have Cuevas-Moore coming off the board in the first round, as they do have A’ja Wilson, but she could potentially make an impact as an undrafted free agent or play overseas.

If Cuevas-Moore does decide to return for a fifth season, she would have company at the point guard position in current sophomore Tyasha Harris and incoming freshman Destanni Henderson, a McDonald’s All-American.

South Carolina women’s basketball returns to court without Cuevas-Moore on Thursday against Arkansas at Colonial Life Arena.

This story was originally published January 23, 2018 at 9:25 PM with the headline "Bianca Cuevas-Moore injury, redshirt update."