South Carolina Basketball: Fans have mixed reactions to new uniforms for 2023-2024 season

Dawn Staley’s South Carolina basketball team will look a lot different on the court in the 2023-2024 season than they have in recent years.

The Gamecocks set a record with five players selected in the 2023 WNBA Draft (Aliyah Boston-1st overall to Indiana Fever, Laeticia Amihere-1st round to Atlanta Dream, Zia Cooke-1st round to Los Angeles Sparks, Brea Beal-2nd round to Minnesota Lynx, and Victaria Saxton-3rd round to Indiana Fever). They also had two other seniors graduate and one player (Talaysia Cooper) leave via the transfer portal.

To replace the outgoing talent, Staley and her staff brought in three freshmen and hit up the transfer portal for a couple more big-time talents. MiLaysia Fulwiley, Tessa Johnson, and Sahnya Jah signed with the Gamecocks in the class of 2023, and Te-Hina Paopao (Oregon) and Sakima Walker (Northwest Florida State College) joined the program as some of the nation’s top players from the transfer portal.

In addition to the new faces, the South Carolina basketball squad will look different because of what they’re wearing.

This week, the Gamecocks unveiled a new-look uniform that the program teased out during the team’s media day.

Fan reaction to the new uniforms has been mixed.

A number of fans really liked the new uniforms, especially as a replacement for the pinstripe uniforms worn at times a season ago (those were not very popular). The font on the jerseys also seems to be a hit as it fits among most of the traditional fonts on the jerseys across the South Carolina Athletics Department.

Other fans are annoyed by the inclusion of “South” on the jersey as many South Carolina basketball fans are protective of the Gamecocks’ right as “the real Carolina.” If any sport holds this right, it is Dawn Staley’s program. South Carolina football alum Tim Frisby points out that having both “South” and “Carolina” above the numbers makes the top of the jersey very busy.

One thing that all the Gamecock basketball fans can agree on, however, is that they are excited to see how Dawn Staley’s program can rebound from losing one of the best classes of all time this offseason, regardless of what uniform they wear.