South Carolina Basketball: 5-star recruit announces Gamecocks in top group

South Carolina basketball coach Dawn Staley is bringing in one of the top recruiting classes in the nation in the 2024 cycle. 5-stars Joyce Edwards, Madisen McDaniel, and Adhel Tac are all on the watch list for the Naismith High School Player of the Year Award and have the Gamecocks’ class ranked 2nd in the country, and there’s a chance USC isn’t done.

Though no players currently are committed in the 2025 class, there is no reason for South Carolina basketball fans to expect anything less than another elite class coming to Columbia in next year’s recruiting cycle.

So far, Coach Staley and her staff have made solid inroads in their recruiting efforts in next year’s class. 5-star wing Zakiyah Johnson has already announced her top schools, and the Gamecocks made the cut. In recent days, another elite player from the class has done the same.

5-star, top-5 national prospect Darianna Alexander released an early list of her recruiting leaders.

Alexander’s early favorites include South Carolina, North Carolina, Southern Cal, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Texas, LSU, Iowa, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Illinois, Georgia, Cincinnati, Arizona, and UConn.

As a player, Alexander is a versatile contributor who can do a little bit of everything on the court. At 6’1″, she is a big guard who can create matchup problems with smaller perimeter players, but she can also slide over to the wing (or even stretch forward spot) to utilize her plus-athleticism to beat bigger players.

Alexander is an aggressive defender who can guard 1-4 on the floor, something that would fit in nicely on a Gamecock team that has several other versatile defenders on the roster or coming to campus in the 2024 class. If she were to commit to the Gamecocks, the 2025-2026 USC squad would have multi-positional defenders like Chloe Kitts, Ashlyn Watkins, Joyce Edwards, Tessa Johnson, Sahnya Jah, and MiLaysia Fulwiley to partner with Alexander.

You can watch some of her film here.