What to expect from South Carolina WBB’s roster after Chloe Kitts injury
Chloe Kitts will miss her senior season after tearing her ACL in her right knee, South Carolina announced Monday.
The No. 2 Gamecocks will certainly miss Kitts on the court, but Dawn Staley said at Tuesday’s SEC Tipoff media event in Birmingham, Alabama that she’s not letting it affect her team’s outlook and expectations.
“We’re unafraid to go into the season without Chloe,” Staley said. “You’re not going to see us skipping a beat. Our players know any time we sustain any kind of injury, we believe in the system that we put together, we believe in the players that we assembled.”
Kitts’ injury, combined with Ashlyn Watkins’ injury and decision to take this year off, leave South Carolina in an interesting position as it enters the 2025-26 season.
The Gamecocks will have just 10 healthy players on the team and are losing 41% of their offensive production from last year’s team.
Breaking down the post
South Carolina returns one of its best forwards in Joyce Edwards this year but will have a hole the size of WNBA draft pick Sania Feagin, Watkins and Kitts in the post.
Kitts and Feagin were two of the top three rebounders on the team last year and were among the top scorers .
What Kitts brings on and off the court is irreplaceable, Staley said, but the rest of the players know they have to step up.
“All the players on our roster, with the exception of our two transfers and our freshmen, they know what it’s about,” Staley said. “Maryam [Dauda] is playing extremely well, much improved. Adhel [Tac] is playing much improved.”
As for Edwards, the honorable mention All-American will likely take on a lot of the workload in the post. But Staley isn’t going to ask her to be Kitts — rather, she should just continue being herself.
“Joyce is Joyce,” Staley said. “Joyce is going to probably take the brunt of it because she’s just got more playing experience under us. The same conversations I’m having with Joyce, with or without Chloe, I’m having. It’s not like we’re going to ask somebody to be Chloe, because that’s impossible.”
Season-ending injuries haven’t happened too often in Staley’s tenure at South Carolina. The silver lining of Kitts’ injury is that it happened before the season and not in the middle of it, like Watkins’ ACL tear last year.
South Carolina doesn’t play its first exhibition game until Oct. 24 and its first regular season game isn’t until Nov. 3, so Staley and the Gamecocks have ample time to adjust to Kitts’ absence.
“If you look throughout our time at South Carolina, we haven’t had very many injuries throughout my career,” Staley said. “The times we’ve sustained some injuries, we won the national championship sustaining an injury to Alaina Coates, right? We’ll figure out a way and make adjustments. I’m glad, somewhat glad, this time where you don’t have to make adjustments mid-season. You go with who’s healthy to go.”
What about the guards?
Although the spotlight has been focused on the difference in South Carolina’s front court, the Gamecocks’ backcourt has seen some change as well.
Staley lost two guards to the WNBA Draft in Te-Hina Paopao and Bree Hall. The Gamecocks also lost MiLaysia Fulwiley to LSU in the transfer portal.
Fulwiley and Paopao were both top five scorers for South Carolina , but Staley partially remedied that by bringing in last year’s leading scorer in the country in Ta’Niya Latson.
Latson averaged 25.2 points per game last season at Florida State. Staley arguably hasn’t had a guard whose scoring capabilities have come close to Latson’s during her tenure at South Carolina. It’s not a gimme that Latson will put up 25-plus points a game with the Gamecocks, but she’ll no doubt play a key role in the offense.
“At the end of the day, I came here to be me,” Latson said. “They recruited me to be myself, so I’ve just got to go in with confidence and just play my game also. Just continue to grow and everything that they need me to be. I’m just trying to be a great teammate. But at the end of the day, I know that what I bring to the table is scoring. Some nights it may be 20, some nights it may be 15, but as long as I’m making an impact, that’s what matters the most.”
South Carolina returns veteran Raven Johnson, sharp-shooter Tessa Johnson and speedy Maddy McDaniel, who will likely be the first guard off the bench this season. That trio, paired with freshmen in Ayla McDowell and Agot Makeer, should give Gamecock fans confidence in the backcourt.
Latson on Tuesday lauded the two freshmen for the way they’ve adjusted to college so far.
“They just have such great IQs,” she said. “I feel like they’ve already been playing in college. They’re so mature. They handle their business. We don’t have to really do much, they know what it is. And I feel like, as seniors, upper classmen, and we appreciate that, because we take our craft pretty seriously. I feel like freshmen coming in doing what they’re doing, that’s rare.”
This story was originally published October 15, 2025 at 8:15 AM.
