South Carolina Basketball: Elite transfer portal guard visiting Gamecocks

South Carolina basketball coach Lamont Paris built his Gamecocks' massive turnaround (tying a program record for losses in the 2022-2023 season to tying a program record for wins in the 2023-2024 season) on recruiting efforts.

Paris brought in an impact freshman in Collin Murray-Boyles, and he filled a bunch of holes on the USC ship with transfer portal players Ta'Lon Cooper, BJ Mack, Myles Stute, and Stephen Clark.

Two freshmen are on board in the 2024 class (Trent Noah and Okku Federiko), and Coach Paris is expected to utilize the transfer portal to fill in the remaining roster spots. One of the biggest holes on the roster is at guard.

The Gamecocks have already made the top-6 for scoring guard Jordan Sears (UT-Martin), and another big-time transfer guard is set to be on campus over the weekend as former Furman Paladin guard JP Pegues entered the transfer portal last week and will be in Columbia to visit the South Carolina basketball program, according to a report from On3's Jamie Shaw.

The rising senior is a big-time offensive engine.

As the point guard for Furman, he averaged over 18 points per game this year, including at least 19 points in each of his final 7 games. He made at least 3 3-pointers in 15 games this season (including at least 6 in 4 games), and he made over 36% from outside. He also attacks the basket well and draws fouls at a high rate. He made 87.5% of his foul shots in the 2023-2024 season, too.

As a distributor, Pegues has averaged better than a 2-1 assist-turnover ratio the past two seasons as a starter. His pick-and-roll skills as a passer are really nice, though, he is even better at scoring off of ball screens, something that would come in handy in Lamont Paris' screen-heavy system.

Pegues can operate off-ball, as well, as he is a good cutter (one who is lethal with quick second passes after a short roll), and he is a good spot-up shooter from the corner, something Ta'Lon Cooper did a lot of this past season for the Gamecocks.

An underrated strength of the 6'1" Pegues is his ability to knock down clutch shots. He hit multiple game-tying or game-winning jumpers at the final buzzer in his Furman career, including (arguably) the biggest shot in Furman history to beat the Virginia Cavaliers in the NCAA Tournament.

Pegues averaged over 4 rebounds and nearly 5 assists this past season to go with his 18.4 points per game.

You can watch some of his film here.