South Carolina Basketball: Major Gamecock competition loses star player to season-ending injury

South Carolina basketball is at a point where Final Fours are the expectation every season. Dawn Staley has led the Gamecocks to being the only program that has multiple national titles since 2017, and they have also been to four Final Fours during that time (the 2019-2020 NCAA Tournament was canceled because of the Covid-19 pandemic).

A team that shares the same Final Four expectations is Geno Auriemma’s UConn Huskies. This year’s UConn squad is viewed as one of the favorites to contend for this season’s national championship along with the Gamecocks. A Huskie title would be their first since 2016.

However, on Wednesday, their title hopes took a big hit.

Junior guard Azzi Fudd, a preseason All-American candidate tore her ACL and meniscus in her right knee during practice last week, but the severity of her injury was just released. This is the second time Fudd has torn the ACL in her right knee.

UConn recently got back fellow guard Paige Bueckers from her own ACL tear that caused her to miss all of last season, and post player Jana El Alfy is out for the year with an Achilles injury.

With these injuries for UConn and the Angel Reese-centered locker room turmoil at LSU, it is unclear if any team will be able to challenge South Carolina basketball for the national title.

Teams like Stanford, Utah, Colorado, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio State, UCLA, and Southern Cal are really good, as well, but the Huskies and Tigers had the highest odds of winning the title coming into the season, and the Gamecocks have been the country’s best team so far.

South Carolina basketball will play fellow contenders Utah (12/10), LSU (1/25), and UConn (2/11) later this season. They could also match up with LSU again in the SEC Tournament and any of the three again in the NCAA Tournament.