See where South Carolina women’s basketball is in ESPN preseason rankings
ESPN released its preseason college women’s basketball rankings on Tuesday with the season set to start in a matter of weeks.
South Carolina checked in at No. 2 in the rankings, dropping from the No. 1 spot the Gamecocks held in ESPN’s way-too-early rankings back in April.
UConn, who was behind South Carolina in those April rankings, is now the No. 1 team in ESPN’s preseason rankings.
ESPN’s Charlie Creme also predicted a transfer from each Top 25 team he expected to make the most impact. UConn’s top portal pickup, Serah Williams, ultimately gave the Huskies enough to move ahead of the Gamecocks.
“Serah Williams, one of the Big Ten’s best players at Wisconsin, enrolled at UConn, giving the reigning national champion Huskies their final piece to move past the Gamecocks as this season’s early favorite in the title race,” Creme wrote.
Creme projects Ta’Niya Latson will be South Carolina’s top transfer. Latson transferred to South Carolina after three successful years at Florida State where she was an All-American.
“In 17 years at South Carolina, Dawn Staley has never had a scoring guard of Latson’s caliber, and it will be interesting to see how that impacts the Gamecocks’ offense,” Creme wrote. “The nation’s leading scorer at 25.2 points per game last season, Latson likes to have the ball in her hands but is nearly unstoppable in transition. She’s a threat to score anywhere on the floor.”
South Carolina went 35-4 last season and lost in the national championship game to UConn.
The Gamecocks return seven players from last year’s team and added four (two freshmen and two transfers) new players. South Carolina lost three players to the WNBA draft and two to the transfer portal. Staley and the Gamecocks lost another player in July when Ashlyn Watkins announced her intention to take a year off from basketball.
South Carolina will play two exhibition games, against Anderson on Oct. 24 and North Carolina on Oct. 30, before kicking off the regular season at home against Grand Canyon on Nov. 3.
ESPN’s women’s college basketball Preseason Top 25
1. UConn
2. South Carolina
3. UCLA
4. Texas
5. LSU
6. Oklahoma
7. Tennessee
8. NC State
9. Duke
10. Maryland
11. North Carolina
12. Ole Miss
13. Iowa State
14. Notre Dame
15. Michigan
16. Louisville
17. Southern Cal
18. Baylor
19. Richmond
20. Iowa
21. TCU
22. Oklahoma State
23. Michigan State
24. Vanderbilt
25. Washington
