South-Carolina
REACTION: Malik Clark Chooses the Seminoles
In a surprise commitment, Malik Clark chose the Florida State Seminoles over North Carolina and South Carolina. After today’s commitment, the Gamecocks will have to pivot as they look to put the finishing touches on the class.
Clark is a four-star receiver from South Carolina’s own back yard in Rock Hill. He combines size (6-foot-2.5 and 180 pounds) with great speed (4.39 in the 40). He can win on routes in multiple ways with the ability to refine his footwork and get bigger in a P4 strength and conditioning program, all to say he has room for improvement as well.
His commitment to Florida State was not expected by those in Columbia, South Carolina. The prevailing thought by many was that he would stay home and join the Gamecocks. While this still could happen, the staff has some work to do.
Currently South Carolina has three wide receivers committed to the class in four-star Lex Cyrus, four-star Brian Rowe, and three-star Jayden Sellers. The Gamecocks would like to add a fourth receiver in the class, but who could they add?
Malik Clark is still going to be a big target for the team. Losing blue chip players in your own backyard isn’t something that’ll go over well in Columbia. Coach Beamer will continue to fight for Clark’s signature going forward. Four-star Winston Watkins Jr. and three-star Giyahni Kontosis, who is set to commit on Saturday, are two potential names to watch out for going forward.
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COLUMBIA, S.C. – Three-time National Champion South Carolina women’s basketball will travel to Fort Worth, Texas, for the USLBM Coast to Coast Challenge featuring the Hoopfest Women’s Basketball Classic at Dickies Arena. The Gamecocks will face off against TCU on Sun., Dec. 8, at 7 p.m. ET on an ESPN network. It will be the first meeting between the two programs.
Tickets for the event will go on presale on Mon., Aug. 12, and on sale to the general public on Fri., Aug. 16. Fans can purchase tickets through the Dickies Arena box office.
South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley returns nine letterwinners from her undefeated 2024 National Championship team for the 2024-25 season, including three All-SEC selections in the NCAA’s top 3-point percentage shooter in senior guard Te-Hina Paopao, junior point guard Raven Johnson and junior forward Ashlyn Watkins, along with second leading scorer MiLaysia Fulwiley. Starters Bree Hall and Chloe Kitts are back as well, joined by NCAA Final Four All-Tournament selection Tessa Johnson and forwards Sania Feagin and Sakima Walker. The veteran group welcomes junior transfer Maryam Dauda and the Nos. 3 and 14 signees in the Class of 2025 in Joyce Edwards and Maddy McDaniel. Class of 2025 early enrollee Adhel Tac is expected to be ready to take the floor this season as well.
The Gamecocks became the 10th team in NCAA history to complete an undefeated National Championship season in 2023-24, adding the program’s eighth SEC Regular-Season Championship and eighth SEC Tournament title as well. South Carolina led the nation in scoring defense, scoring margin and blocked shots per game, setting program records for scoring average, scoring margin, field goals made, 3-point field goals made, defensive rebounds and assists.
TCU finished the 2023-24 season 21-12 overall, including spending some time ranked in the AP Top 25. Eight letterwinners from that team return for 2024-25, and the Horned Frogs added a pair of SEC transfers in Maddie Scherr (Kentucky) and Hailey Van Lith (LSU).
Other games previously announced on the Gamecocks’ 2024-25 season – Nov. 4 vs. Michigan in Las Vegas, Nev.; in the Hall of Fame Series, Nov. 10 in Charlotte, N.C., against NC State in the Ally Tipoff; Nov. 24 at UCLA; Nov. 28 and Nov. 30, against Iowa State and Purdue, respectively, in the Elevance Health Fort Myers Tipoff; and Dec. 5 against Duke in Columbia.
For information on South Carolina Women’s Basketball 2024-25 season tickets, visit https://thegamecockclub.com/wbb/.
Continue to check GamecocksOnline.com and the team’s social media accounts (@GamecockWBB) for the most up-to-date information on South Carolina women’s basketball.
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Two inmates died from drug overdoses in two days at a South Carolina jail, which has been under a federal civil rights investigation, authorities said.
The inmates at the jail in Richland County were killed by two different drugs, one on Monday and a second on Tuesday, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said.
Deputies are investigating how the drugs got into the jail. It’s smuggling, either through jail employees or inmates as they are booked, the sheriff said.
“There is no magician that pops them in there. Someone has to bring them physically in,” Lott said at a Wednesday news conference.
Drug sniffing dogs were sent to the jail Tuesday night, but didn’t find any illegal substances, Lott said.
Lamont Powell, 54, overdosed on fentanyl, while Marty Brown, 25, died after taking Pentazocine, a narcotic painkiller that has started to show up as an alternative to fentanyl, authorities said.
The U.S. Justice Department has been investigating whether Richland County’s Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center violated inmates’ civil rights. The agency launched the investigation after stabbings, rapes, escapes and a riot, all in the past few years, investigators said.
Federal officials cited a long list of issues, including an inmate who was beaten to death by five attackers locked in cells with unsecured doors and a man who died of dehydration while suffering from fresh rat bites. He’d reportedly lost 40 pounds (18 kilograms) during the two weeks he spent in a cell lacking running water.
A state investigation in late 2023 found the Richland County jail lacked written plans to evacuate inmates during a fire; left keys for cells and exits in an unlocked desk drawer in a juvenile wing; tasked prisoners with conducting head counts; and only gave prisoners clean clothes once a week.
Women were being held in a unit with urinals and a male inmate was able to drop into the female unit through the ceiling. The women weren’t regularly given toothbrushes, soap, tampons and pads, according to the investigation.
South-Carolina
USC joins college network looking to boost rural students’ access to higher education
COLUMBIA — The University of South Carolina is joining a coalition of colleges and universities looking to expand their recruiting and outreach efforts in rural schools.
As one of 16 new members of the Small Town and Rural Student College Network, known as STARS, USC will get more funding for its work to reach prospective students and be able to better coordinate with the network’s other members to put on school events.
It’s the latest step the university has taken to make itself more accessible for Palmetto State high schoolers, whose rural campuses are set to get more outreach from the network’s other 31 members, which range from Ivy League universities to state flagships and liberal arts colleges.
“We’re trying our best to recruit these students to the University of South Carolina, that’s our primary goal,” Scott Verzyl, USC’s vice president for enrollment management, said. “But if we can increase the college-going rates for South Carolinians, no matter where they go to college, that’s a win for the university and the state of South Carolina.”
Founded in 2023 with 16 members, the STARS network helps coordinate and fund its members’ outreach to rural and small town students, who are less likely than their urban and suburban counterparts to attend and stay enrolled in college.
Admissions counselors from its member schools “caravan” together across rural areas, visiting schools to teach about the admissions process and hold information sessions for parents, according to Marjorie Betley, the network’s executive director.
Students on those campuses often lack as much exposure to information about higher education and can be overlooked by admissions counselors, because trips to small towns put them in front of fewer students than a trip to a big metropolitan area.
In its inaugural year, the network boasted 1,100 visits to rural high schools in 49 different states.
“For many students, it just shows that we care,” Betley said. “We are not overlooking them, we are not flying over them just to get to the big city kids. We care, and we’re going to take the time and the effort to go reach them and give them the same information that their peers have, because they deserve that.
South Carolina students can expect at least two of those group travel trips this school year, in the fall and spring.
USC will get $200,000 from the network to help fund its prospective student outreach efforts, Verzyl said, which aim to visit every high school in the state each year. It doesn’t always hit that mark, but it’s usually close, to the tune of over 90 percent.
Perhaps most importantly, that money will help fund the university’s efforts to transport high schoolers to campus, which allows them to better understand USC and college life — a “transformational activity” for some students, Betley said.
Such visits can be particularly important for rural students, who might not be as familiar with higher education or have the same support systems at their schools or in their families for applying to college.
Coupled with the university’s 2023 pledges to automatically admit all South Carolina students who graduate in the the top 10 percent their school, and pay the tuition of such students whose families make less than $80,000 a year, school leaders are hoping that the STARS network will help USC build a more diverse student body.
“All of these kinds of things, access and affordability, we think are important to attracting students, particularly the students from more rural parts of the state,” Verzyl said.
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