Kentucky’s Alexis Jennings transferring to South Carolina

As if this rivalry needed more heat …

Former Kentucky forward Alexis Jennings is transferring to South Carolina, coach Dawn Staley announced Wednesday. The 6-foot-2 forward will sit out the 2016-17 season because of NCAA transfer rules and will have two remaining years of eligibility beginning in 2017-18.

“It’s a great day to be a Gamecock,” Staley said in a statement. “Alexis joining our Gamecock family brings us a proven, versatile player. Her ability to score with her back to the basket and stretch the floor with her 3-point shot makes us instantly better.”

Jennings is the fourth star transfer who has picked USC over the past two years and one that hurts a conference foe. She averaged 10 points and 7.1 rebounds per game last year and was the ninth-ranked forward in the country out of Sparkman (Ala.) High two years ago.

The Alabama Class 6A Player and Tennessee Valley Player of the Year, Jennings was a 2014 WBCA high-school All-American. At Kentucky, she started 21 of 67 games and played her best against SEC competition – last season, her 7.5 rebounds in conference play was 10^th in the league.

Jennings had 19 double-doubles last season and shot 47.4 percent from the field. She scored 15 and hauled 16 rebounds in an upset of Texas A&M.

She’s also one of a wave of players who either left Kentucky or re-opened their recruiting since fall 2015, including several stars. Coach Matthew Mitchell has shouldered the blame, saying the approach that built the Wildcats into contenders has slipped while vowing to rebuild it.

It was too late to hold onto Jennings and other players, and blanket releases cleared them to go anywhere they wished. USC, seeking a post player to replace rising senior Alaina Coates after 2016-17, landed Jennings.

Jennings will be able to play her first season at USC alongside fellow transfers Allisha Gray and Kaela Davis, plus 2016 SEC Player of the Year A’ja Wilson.

The rivalry between the Wildcats and Gamecocks has become the SEC’s best over the past five years, as the two have battled for conference supremacy. The Cats claimed the 2012 regular-season championship and placed second in 2013; since, it’s been a USC three-peat.

Throughout has been Mitchell and Staley snarling over each other’s actions during games; Kentucky denying USC a perfect 16-0 SEC season in 2014-15; and the Gamecocks blistering the Wildcats by 30 points in last season’s SEC Tournament semifinal, saying afterward they felt disrespected by pre-game comments from TV analysts and guard Makayla Epps.

Now Jennings has heaped more fuel on the fire. Because USC and Kentucky are permanent opponents, she’s guaranteed to face her old coach and team at least twice a year.

Jennings joins a recruiting class with four freshmen – guards Araion Bradshaw, Tyasha Harris and Victoria Patrick and forward Mikiah Harrigan.

The Gamecocks have three open scholarships. Staley has preferred to leave a few open every season.

This story was originally published June 1, 2016 at 12:05 PM with the headline "Kentucky’s Alexis Jennings transferring to South Carolina."