South Carolina basketball junior center hitting the transfer portal
Another South Carolina men’s basketball player is leaving the program.
Junior center Wildens Leveque will enter the transfer portal, a USC spokesperson confirmed Sunday. Verbal Commits was the first to report the news of Leveque leaving.
Leveque is the fourth Gamecock to announce he is leaving since Lamont Paris was named the new coach last week. He joins Erik Stevenson, Jermaine Cousinard and Tra’Quan Woodley as other players to say they are entering the transfer portal. Stevenson visited West Virginia over the weekend.
Leveque started 27 of 28 games played this season, averaging 6.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game. The 6-foot-10 center was the No. 2 player in the state of Massachusetts by ESPN.com, playing out of Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine.
Leveque appeared in 80 games during his USC career.
Being in the portal doesn’t guarantee a player will leave the program, though Couisnard indicated that he will not return to South Carolina.
In his introductory press conference Thursday, Paris said that one-on-one meetings with current players would start soon, but he also said he wouldn’t “strong-arm” any Gamecocks into staying on the roster. Paris is already on the recruiting trail and has experience using the transfer portal, with eight transfers on this year’s NCAA tournament Mocs team.
No current Gamecocks were seen in attendance Thursday at Paris’ first press conference. The new coach met with the team for the first time earlier Thursday.
“Some guys aren’t going to like me because I’m a new guy and I didn’t recruit them. And some guys are going to get a chance to get to know me and say, ‘Whoa, this is a fresh start and I can thrive in this guy’s system,’ ” Paris said. “That’s just how it is sometimes. I won’t strong-arm a young man into staying here if it is not the best thing for him. He isn’t going to perform well and not going to buy in.”
Gamecocks in the transfer portal
Wildens Leveque (March 27)
Ta’Quan Woodley (March 26)
Jermaine Couisnard (March 25)
Erik Stevenson (March 24)
This story was originally published March 27, 2022 at 1:01 PM.
