Madina Okot slump went beyond basketball. How Raven Johnson lifted up her USC teammate
Dawn Staley made a change to her starting lineup halfway through SEC play this season. That’s not entirely out of the ordinary. Coaches tweak lineups all the time.
But it’s not every day you move a player averaging a double-double to the bench after they’ve started in 18 games.
That was the case for South Carolina senior forward Madina Okot this season.
Okot, a Mississippi State transfer, had started 18 times for the Gamecocks in the first half of the season but hit a rut once SEC play began. She saw her production drop by nearly 50% — from 14.8 points and 10.9 rebounds to 8.4 ppg and 6.4 ppg — in a five-game stretch in late January against Coppin State, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, Auburn and Texas A&M.
Staley moved Okot to the bench for three of those five games (vs. Vanderbilt, Auburn and Texas A&M) in an attempt to relieve some pressure, she said at the time.
“She’s working through some things, and sometimes when players are working through some things, you’ve just got to get to the other side,” Staley said after the Texas game in January. “The more you wallow in it, the worse it gets, but the more you just think about just getting through. It may be ugly, it may make you feel bad, but they’re all just growing pains.
“This is unfamiliar territory for her regarding big stakes, big game, everybody’s watching. So it takes some time to get used to.”
Okot’s slump didn’t last forever, and she’s found a new gear on the court since February. She didn’t get through that slump by herself, though. She had a little help along the way from USC veteran Raven Johnson.
How Raven Johnson became ‘like a sister’
Staley, during Okot’s slump, emphasized that her senior was “going through it” mentally. While it was never explicitly said at the time, it was later revealed that homesickness has kept Okot down at times since arriving in South Carolina.
Okot is from Mumias, Kenya, a town of 100,000 people on the east side of Africa. Mumias is about 7,700 miles as the crow flies from Columbia, South Carolina. That’s roughly a 20-plus hour airplane flight. So it makes sense Okot might miss home more than the average college student.
Although Okot isn’t a complete stranger to the United States, she’s still relatively new. She spent one season (2024-25) at Mississippi State before joining Staley and the Gamecocks this year.
Last summer, in her first interviews with the local media, Okot was moved to tears when a reporter asked how long it had been since she last saw her parents and seven siblings.
The answer? Sometime in 2024. .
The impacts of homesickness for Okot were more common than the public realized, her roommate, USC veteran guard Raven Johnson, shared recently.
“In the summer, she was crying her butt off, saying she didn’t want to be here, she wanted to go back to Kenya, her hometown,” Johnson told reporters during an interview at the SEC Tournament.
Any time Okot gets homesick, Johnson is right there to offer a judgment-free shoulder to cry on.
“Most of the time when I feel bad, or maybe when I’m homesick, I just want to be in my room by myself, maybe talk to my family,” Okot said during the SEC Tournament. “She feels like I’m so lonely, and she doesn’t like it when I feel that way so she used to come to my room — and she’s still doing it — to make sure I’m good, make sure I have everything that I need. Trying to keep myself busy, maybe watching movies, watching games, trying to ask me what I want, and she’ll provide it.”
Johnson has continued to be there for Okot throughout the season. Staley even went as far to say the point guard played a major role in breaking Okot out of her on-court slump.
“I think Raven is probably one of the main reasons why Madina’s hurdled what she hurdled,” Staley said after USC played Ole Miss on Feb 22. “Because she lives with her. It’s her big girl. Raven knows that in order for us to win championships, regular season, whatever, (Okot) has to be a big part of it, and she has to play better than what she was playing.”
Okot’s always been able to go to Johnson. The two have developed a “really good connection” in the last year, South Carolina’s associate head coach Lisa Boyer told The State.
“She’s more than a teammate. She’s like a sister to me,” Okot said. “I just have been going through a lot of things outside basketball, but she’s been there. She’s been present. She’s been there to listen, give advice whenever needed.”
Results start to show on the court
Okot made her return to the starting lineup against her former team on Feb. 5 at home. She tallied 10 points and 10 rebounds, marking her first double-double in nearly a month.
Three days later, she scored 10 points and brought in 16 rebounds during South Carolina’s 93-50 shellacking of Tennessee.
“I’m back,” Okot declared.
Okot rallied off seven double-doubles in a row to end the Gamecocks’ regular season. She averaged 16 points, 14.1 rebounds and shot 58.5% from the field in the stretch. Okot scored more than 20 points twice in that span and had more than 15 rebounds four separate times.
“It always makes me feel really good, like almost emotional when you see a young person go through some stuff and they really can’t see their way out of it,” Staley said after Okot’s double-double vs. Ole Miss. “But you just continue to work with them. ‘Hey, you’re going to hurdle this. You’re going to get through’ just each and every day. You take the pressure off, and then you apply the pressure.”
The chemistry built between Okot and Johnson has already shown up on the court in the postseason.
Okot struggled in the first half of South Carolina’s SEC Tournament semifinals matchup with LSU. She scored just two points and shot 1 for 5 from the field. Who was there to push her through? It was Johnson, who was literally yelling, “Shoot it! Shoot it!” at Okot during the game.
“I had been trying to make layups the whole game and they weren’t going in,” Okot said. “It’s just about my teammates encouraging me. [Raven] was like, ‘No, I’m not gonna stop giving you the ball. When you’re free I’m giving it to you. Go to work.’”
Okot finished with eight points and 13 rebounds in the game. A pair of layups from her in the final minutes effectively clinched the win over LSU. It was poetic that the player who passed the ball to Okot right before both game-icing buckets was none other than Johnson.
“I think Madina just needs to trust her ability,” Johnson said after the LSU game. “When you’re not seeing the ball go through, keep shooting. ... When she’s open, shoot it. She can shoot the ball. ”
Okot’s production slipped to two points and five rebounds in the SEC Tournament finals against Texas, but the same dip happened with just about everyone on South Carolina’s roster in the 78-61 loss.
Regardless, Okot has now proven she can be a dominant player night in and night out in the post for the Gamecocks. Her 21 double-doubles this season are the third-most in the nation, and it’s that kind of production that will be crucial for South Carolina in its NCAA Tournament run.
“I think everything that she deserves, she’s getting it,” Johnson said. “A double-double every night? I mean, that’s big. That’s big. I think she’s the best big in the country.
“… Like she said, she’s back, and we see it.”
