South Carolina Basketball: Big man hits the transfer portal
By Kevin Miller
The South Carolina basketball season ended less than a week ago, but the college basketball transfer portal opened today for underclassmen. Third-year big Tre-Vaughn Minott has entered his name into the portal. The Canadian forward played sparingly during his career but flashed some promise as an interior defender and strong finisher at the rim. Unfortunately for Minott, his athleticism and conditioning seemed to be an issue for most of his career, limiting his playing time.
Minott was a three-star recruit who enrolled during the middle of the 2020-2021 season. He started a handful of games for Frank Martin during his first two games on campus. He scored a career-high of 8 points in a win against Army and posted career-highs in rebounds (6) and blocked shots (3) against Clemson. He shot 69% from the field in his career but only took shots in and around the paint.
As of now, it is unclear if Minott has a destination in mind with this decision. He is the first South Carolina Gamecock to enter his name into the transfer portal this offseason, but there is the possibility for more. With Hayden Brown’s graduation and Minott’s portal decision, the Gamecocks have three scholarships headed into next season as one went unused during the 2022-2023 season.
True freshmen Arden Conyers and Collin Murray-Boyles will fill two of those spots. Murray-Boyles seems poised to play early for the Gamecocks and has been a recent “riser” in recruiting rankings, moving up as high as the top-100 according to some recruiting outlets. The third scholarship and any additional scholarships that come available through transfer portal defections will likely be used in bringing talent in from the portal.
The Gamecocks have been directly connected to 6’9″ forward Stephen Clark who is transferring from The Citadel. Clark, a graduate student, will have one more year to play. The second-team All-Southern Conference player was a former teammate of graduating Gamecock Hayden Brown and could fill Brown’s vacated role. For this year’s team, Brown operated primarily as a power forward who could make plays for teammates and sometimes shoot the ball from outside. Clark has a similar game and is an intriguing name to watch moving forward.