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Hoops recruiting insider (men's and women's notes)

Chris Clark

Football/Recruiting Insider
Jan 3, 2005
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Massachusetts product Brandon Stone is hearing from South Carolina and recently took an unofficial visit to the school. Stone is a 6-foot-11 post from the 2019 class.

“It was great,” Stone said. “I really enjoyed it. They said they love the way I play and they plan on being a lot of my games during AAU.”

Right now, Stone has mid-major offers from Duquesne, Robert Morris, App State, Stony Brook, and some others, with plenty of time for high-major programs to step in. South Carolina, Pitt, Maryland, Butler, West Virginia, Purdue, and many others are showing interest in him right now.

“I loved the campus. It’s a really nice area and I could see myself living there and playing for Coach Martin,” Stone said.

USC assistant Perry Clark recently checked up on in-state 2019 post DJ Burns, who took in a football game in Williams-Brice as a hoops visitor this season. There is not a top five at this time for Burns, but South Carolina has built up some good will early by consistently recruiting him and hitting the road to see him when possible. New interest has drummed up lately from Butler, Kansas, Vandy, Miami, and FSU. Closer to the end of his junior season, Burns will make an effort to trim his list.

The Gamecock staff is showing interest in Florida 2018 guard Zack Scott, along with Cincinnati, Florida, FSU, Oklahoma, Clemson, Georgia Tech, TCU, Stanford, and many others. He’s collected several early offers as well. Scott’s team played for a state championship this past season and he had 18 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block during that contest.

We’ve documented the strengths of the Gamecocks’ 2017 signing class in previous installments, an interesting group because of the versatility and differences between each prospect in the group. Here are some video clips we rounded up on each of the signees:

Felipe Haase


David Beatty


Jason Cudd (full game)


Ibrahim Doumbia


Moving over to the women’s hoops side, Dawn Staley already has a top 10 prospect in point guard Destanni Henderson out of Florida committed for the 2018 class. Henderson is ranked tenth nationally by ESPNHoopGurlz and ninth by another scouting service, ProspectsNation. Aside from Henderson, there are several names to track; we’ll detail a few here.

South Carolina is heavily in the mix for HoopGurlz’s number one prospect overall, Georgia’s Olivia Nelson-Ododa. From what I’m told, she is taking the recruiting process very slowly. She had a knee injury (nothing serious) that sort of placed things on hold, but they’ll pick back up later in the year. I was not able to gather any sort of lead group for Nelson-Ododa, but I’m told she and her family are focusing on programs that have been consistent players from the beginning, and that South Carolina fits that bill. Look for the Gamecocks to remain in play here.

USC is also one of the programs in the mix for Texas’ Nalyssa Smith, the sixth-ranked prospect nationally by HoopGurlz and ProspectsNation. Distance does not appear to be a major factor here for Smith, and Dawn Staley’s track record on multiple levels as a coach and player really holds appeal for the family. Her list stands at nine right now, and South Carolina is on it. The plan is to take a full slate of official visits, and Columbia could be one of the destinations.

Aquira DeCosta, a top-ten prospect nationally, had trimmed her list to Baylor, Louisville, Oklahoma, Tennessee, UCLA, and Washington. Decosta’s father, Randy, recently told ESPN that South Carolina could be back in play for his daughter. She’s ranked by both HoopGurlz and ProspectsNation as the country’s sixth-best prospect.

The state of South Carolina has a couple of potential big-timers in the 2020 class. One is already getting to be fairly well-known, Wilson High’s Loyal McQueen out of Florence. She’s the daughter of Wilson’s head boy’s basketball coach and has carried a USC verbal for quite some time. McQueen visited USC late this season to watch the Gamecocks clinch another regular season SEC title.


Westwood post player Nyah Leveretter out of the 2020 class is another one heavily on the Gamecocks’ radar right now.
 
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