With a rough season behind them, South Carolina basketball attempts to bounce back with a revamped roster in the 2025-26 season.
The tradition continues! It’s another year of our countdown of the top 100 preseason teams in college basketball until the start of the season. Each day, we will reveal the next team until we reach the team slotted at number one. Up next: South Carolina basketball.
There was hope in Columbia that a record-setting 2023-24 season, in which South Carolina won 26 games for just the second time in program history, would lead to momentum heading into the next year. But the team lost arguably the three most integral pieces of the roster: Sharp-shooting big man B.J. Mack, facilitator Ta’Lon Cooper, and lead guard Meechie Johnson Jr.
While Collin Murray-Boyles, Myles Stute, Zachary Davis, and Jacobi Wright, all with starting experience, returned, the depth compared to the previous year just wasn’t there. Injuries struck, with Norfolk State transfer Jamarii Thomas missing time due to knee issues. Stute was held to 14 games, and big man Okku Federiko never got cleared by the NCAA. If something could go wrong for South Carolina last season, it did. The team started the season with a home loss to North Florida, who eventually had a losing record against conference opponents in the A-Sun and replaced their coach at the end of the season.
From there, the Gamecocks simply never got rolling. The highlight of the season was beating in-state rival Clemson in overtime, but even though South Carolina entered the conference portion of the schedule with a 10-3 record, they lost 13 straight games against SEC opponents. After a Dec. 30 victory over Presbyterian, South Carolina didn’t win another basketball game until Feb. 22, when they defeated Texas at home. The team finished 2-17 against SEC competition after bowing out to Arkansas in the first round of the SEC tournament. As of writing, the last time South Carolina won a road game was December 3, 2024, against Boston College.
But the Gamecocks, at times, were purely unlucky. They lost by three points to eventual Final Four participant Auburn in a game in which Johni Broome was outshined by Collin Murray-Boyles. After leading for almost the entire game against eventual champion Florida, South Carolina lost by a single point. All in all, the Gamecocks lost seven games by four or less points. Four of those seven losses were to ranked opponents. That’s competitive, albeit unlucky, basketball.
While the team was at the bottom of the SEC standings, they were a couple of ball bounces away from being a .500 basketball team. Per the laws of probability, there’s reason to assume the team’s luck will regress to the mean in the 2025-26 season. How’s this for flipping – the Gamecocks were ranked 349th in KenPom’s luck rating last season. In their 2023-24 season, they were 4th of 362 teams. The odds of that happening are microscopically low, but that’s basketball. Credit to the Gamecocks for not giving up last year.
Collin Murray-Boyles is gone, drafted to the Toronto Raptors with the 9th pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. But two skilled big men transfers, Elijah Strong (Boston College) and Christ Essandoko (Providence) can attempt to fill that void. Nick Pringle is gone, but there’s hope within Columbia that Jordan Butler, with an extra year of experience in the Paris playbook, is developed enough to play a larger role with the Gamecocks. The team also brought in transfer Nordin Kapic from UC-San Diego as a deceptively-sized forward. In the freshman class, EJ Walker and Hayden Essemian are two undersized power forwards that, with time and development, could make an impact as a freshman if needed.
On the wings, Stute returns, assumedly healthy, for his sixth year of basketball in the SEC. A veteran shooter, a fully healthy Stute is a great thing to have for a Lamont Paris offense, which relies on ball movement and off-ball spacing to find open shots. Freshmen Grant Polk and Abu Yarmah are both raw prospects, but can learn behind Stute and Utah transfer Mike Sharavjamts (6’9″, 195), who have a combined 231 games of collegiate experience across five different schools.
The starting guards might be the stars of the offense in the 2025-26 season. Eli Ellis and Meechie Johnson (he’s back) are the only Gamecocks on the roster under 6’5″, but could be the most explosive scorers in the program. Overall, the team has a chance to really improve after a forgettable season last year, but competing in the SEC has only gotten more difficult as the league has improved.
Head coach:Â Lamont Paris (4th season at South Carolina, 9th season overall)
2024-25 record: 12-20 (2-16)
2025 postseason finish:Â N/A
Notable departures:Â
- Collin Murray-Boyles (16.8 PPG, 8.3 RPG, 2.4 APG, 1.5 SPG, 1.3 BPG)
- Jamarii Thomas (13.2 PPG, 3.0 APG, 2.9 RPG, 1.3 SPG)
- Nick Pringle (9.5 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 1.1 APG)
- Zachary Davis (8.2 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 1.8 APG, 1.1 SPG)
- Jacobi Wright (7.7 PPG, 2.3 APG, 2.2 RPG)
- Morris Ugusuk (5.9 PPG, 1.4 RPG, 0.9 APG, 40.7 3PT%)
Notable non-conference games:Â
- N/A
Projected Rotation
PG: Eli Ellis (6-0, 192, Fr.)
On3 No. 71 Recruit in Class of 2025
SG: Meechie Johnson Jr. (6-2, 192, Rs.-Sr.)
2024-25 stats: 9.1 PPG, 2.7 APG, 2.5 RPG (Ohio State)
SF: Myles Stute (6-7, 221, Rs.-Sr.)
2024-25 stats: 5.4 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 1.1 APG
PF: Elijah Strong (6-8, 250, Jr.)
2024-25 stats: 9.6 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 0.9 APG, 36.2 3P% (Boston College)
C: Jordan Butler (7-0, 237, Jr.)
2024-25 stats: 1.8 PPG, 0.9 RPG, 0.2 APG, 7.1 MPG
6: Kobe Knox (6-5, 200, Rs.-Sr.)
2024-25 stats: 10.8 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 1.6 APG (South Florida)
7: Nordin Kapic (6-8, 240, Sr.)
2024-25 stats: 10.7 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 1.2 APG (UC San Diego)
8: Christ Essandoko (7-0, 280, Rs.-Jr.)
2024-25 stats: 4.3 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 0.8 APG (Providence)
9: Mike Sharavjamts (6-9, 195, Sr.)
2024-25 stats: 7.2 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 2.8 APG (Utah)
10: Cam Scott (6-6, 172, So.)
2024-25 stats: 2.5 PPG, 1.3 RPG, 0.4 APG
11: EJ Walker (6-7, 253, Fr.)
On3 No. 195 Recruit in Class of 2025
12: Hayden Assemian (6-6, 230, Fr.)
On3 No. 257 Recruit in Class of 2025
13: Grant Polk (6-6, 197, Fr.)
On3 No. 267 Recruit in Class of 2025
14: Abu Yarmah (6-6, 209, Fr.)
On3 No. 295 Recruit in Class of 2025
South Carolina Basketball team MVP: Meechie Johnson Jr.
This is the second iteration of Meechie Johnson Jr. at South Carolina. The first time around, the Gamecocks went 26-8 and earned a bid to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2017, when they made it all the way to the Final Four. In that season, Johnson led the team with 14.1 PPG, adding 4.1 RPG and 2.9 APG. For his exploits, Johnson was named to the 2023-24 All-SEC Second Team.
But after the season, following Jake Diebler’s promotion to head coach at Ohio State, Johnson transferred to Columbus. Ohio State is only two hours away from where Johnson grew up in Cleveland. But after only ten games as a Buckeye, Johnson left the team. He wasn’t as productive, averaging 35.6% from the field. He did score 17 points against Green Bay but was held below double-digits against every Power Five opponent on the Buckeyes’ schedule.
Johnson, back in Columbia, should return to his old self. Shockingly, Johnson has totaled more minutes in a Carolina uniform than every other Gamecock on the 2025-26 roster combined, even though he’s spent most of his career as a Buckeye and transferred out of Carolina prior to last season. Is Meechie Johnson the first ever incoming transfer to led his new team in career minutes played for the team? Regardless of if that’s true or not, Johnson will be a veteran presence for a team with six underclassmen and a (projected) freshman point guard starting.
South Carolina Basketball make-or-break player: Eli Ellis
South Carolina was in desperate need of a point guard after the 2024-25 season. In fact, only one true guard (Cam Scott) was left on the roster due to various transfers and graduations. The Gamecocks, unrelated, were in need of an offensive spark as well. They averaged just 65.7 PPG in conference matchups, last in the SEC. Enter Eli Ellis.
Ellis might not be all that on the defensive end of the ball, and he’s only six feet even. But some players were born to be on offense 24/7. That’s Ellis. Playing in the Overtime Elite league with other high-profile recruits such as Meleek Thomas, Jasper Johnson, and Amari Evans, Ellis led the league in both points (32.1 per game) and assists (6.7 per game). Ball movement is paramount to a Lamont Paris offense. Ellis is capable of creating space for himself and others, and that could spark an offensive revolution for the Gamecocks. The question remains: can Ellis, as a freshman, adjust to the best college basketball conference from a league many still see as a gimmick?
Key analytic: Opponent blocks per game
South Carolina managed to get 4.6 of their shots per game sent back last season. That’s not good. In fact, that’s sixth-worst in D-I, or 359th of 364 schools, in the opposite direction. The Gamecocks also made less than 50% of their twos (49.8%), not great. Of the seven Gamecocks to start a game last season, only two made at least half of their two-point attempts.
One good aspect of the portal era is that a team’s weakness can become a strength overnight. It’s yet to be seen, of course, if that will happen in Columbia. But the team has 11 newcomers: six transfers and five freshmen. Seven-footer Jordan Butler saw an increased role later in the season and that came with an increased aggression on offense. Butler averaged 75.0% on two-point attempts over the final 11 games of the season. With Murray-Boyles and Pringle gone, Butler will certainly have an opportunity to see the court.
Paris brought in another seven-footer in the portal, Christ Essandoko from Providence. Essandoko shot 57.9% from inside the arc as a sophomore and 54.8% as a freshman at St. Joseph’s. But he does venture outside of the arc. He took 26.8% of his attempts from three as a freshman, converting on 36.8% of those shots. Paris brought in several forwards as part of the freshman class, so depth could be improved compared to last season.
South Carolina Basketball 2025-26 projections
Projected conference finish:Â 16th in the SEC
Projected postseason ceiling:Â NCAA Tournament Round of 64