South Carolina Basketball: 5-star guard commits to Gamecocks

South Carolina basketball picked up a massive commitment to start off the class of 2024. Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks had not received any public pledges in the 2024 recruiting class, but that changed late on Saturday night.

During halftime of the Girls Elite24 Showcase, 5-star guard Maddy McDaniel announced her commitment to Dawn Staley and the South Carolina basketball program.

Instead of her typical “A birdie just flew in the nest” tweet to announce a commitment before a player is ready to make their public announcement, Coach Staley happily acknowledged McDaniel’s commitment with a similar celebratory tweet that just read “Birdie, Birdie, Birdie.”

McDaniel is a 5-star guard who is expected to play the point guard spot in college. She is ranked as the 11th-best prospect in the country for the class of 2024 according to ESPNw’s HoopGurlz recruiting rankings.

McDaniel is a smaller guard (listed anywhere between 5’5″ and 5’8″ depending on the recruiting profile) who utilizes her quickness, ball handling ability, and fearlessness to create scoring opportunities for herself and her teammates. In other words, her game is an ideal fit for the point guard spot in a Dawn Staley offense.

When McDaniel eventually joins other talented Gamecock guards like Raven Johnson, Milaysia Fulwiley, and Tessa Johnson, South Carolina basketball will have an abundance of talent on the perimeter, and who better to coach up these high-level guards than one of the greatest guards to ever play women’s basketball?

Coach Staley and the Gamecocks are also in on several other elite prospects from the class of 2024, including local prospect Joyce Edwards (#1 overall player, forward), Tennessee native Jaloni Cambridge (#3 overall player, guard), and Texas product Justice Carlton (#6 overall player, forward).

It is unclear as of now whether or not McDaniel’s commitment is the same commitment that Staley hinted at with her June “birdie” tweet.

Those who also follow football recruiting may notice that McDaniel is a Maryland native, so, perhaps the South Carolina basketball team is also looking to create a “DMVtoSC” pipeline.

You can watch some of McDaniel’s film here.