This week marks the unofficial beginning of the South Carolina men’s basketball team’s 2024-25 season, as it kicks off its offseason with a series of practices and workouts.
The Gamecocks’ roster features not only some returning faces but also newcomers from the transfer portal and high school ranks. Here’s a look at where it stands heading into preseason practice.
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Returning players
Collin Murray-Boyles: Murray-Boyles was forced to miss South Carolina’s first six games last season after being diagnosed with mononucleosis. But he ended the campaign as one of the top breakout stars in the country and emerged as a foundational piece for the Gamecocks to build around moving forward. The sophomore forward averaged 10.4 points and 5.7 rebounds on 59.7 percent shooting on his way to SEC All-Freshman Team honors.
Myles Stute: The senior guard played his first season in Garnet and Black after playing three seasons at Vanderbilt. Despite battling shoulder and knee injuries throughout the year, Stute still appeared in 27 games and averaged 8.3 points and 3.3 rebounds per contest. He also finished second on the team in three-point shooting (38.5 percent).
Jacobi Wright: Although Wright saw a slight decrease in playing time compared to the previous season, he was one of the first players head coach Lamont Paris called upon to give South Carolina’s starters a breather. He appeared in 34 games — starting just one — and scored 5.9 points, along with just under two assists, per contest.
Zachary Davis: Another spark plug off the bench, Davis contributed strongly to the defensive efforts of a South Carolina team that finished second in the SEC in points allowed per game. The junior guard averaged 5.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game and hit multiple clutch shots, including a game-winning layup against Texas A&M on Feb. 28.
Morris Ugusuk: Ugusuk appeared in 30 games for the Gamecocks during his freshman campaign, starting in none of them. He registered 10.2 minutes per contest, averaging 2.2 points per game in the process. Coincidentally, South Carolina went 12-2 in games in which he scored at least one point.
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Austin Herro: Herro did not appear in any games last season and redshirted. The younger brother of five-year NBA veteran Tyler Hero, the redshirt freshman averaged 14.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game as a high school senior at Whitnall High School in Greenfield, Wisconsin.
Transfer players
Nick Pringle: A Seabrook, South Carolina native, Pringle committed to the Gamecocks after two seasons with Alabama, which reached the Final Four last season. He recorded a career-high 6.8 points and 5.1 rebounds per game across 34 appearances, including 16 starts. Pringle also posted two double-doubles over the course of the season — including two in SEC play and one in the NCAA Tournament.
Jordan Butler: Butler, an incoming transfer from Missouri, checks in as South Carolina’s tallest player at 7 feet. The Greenville native appeared in 31 games as a freshman this past season, averaging 11.4 minutes and 2.3 points per game.
Jamarii Thomas: Thomas originally pledged to play for VCU earlier in the offseason but flipped his commitment to the Gamecocks. The senior guard spent last year with Norfolk State, where he was named the MEAC Player of the Year. He averaged a conference-high 16.9 points per game on 40.4 percent shooting in his lone season with the Spartans.
Incoming freshmen
Cam Scott: Scott heads into this season as one of the nation’s top-ranked freshmen, according to the On3 Industry Ranking. The Columbia native is listed as the No. 40 overall player in the country, as well as the No. 9 shooting guard prospect and the No. 1 recruit from the Palmetto State. He averaged 22.0 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.3 steals and 2.5 assists per game during his senior season at Lexington High School.
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Okku Federiko: Federiko joins the Gamecocks as the No. 93 player in the class of 2024, according to On3. He represented Finland in the 2023 FIBA U20 European Championship Division B and averaged 11.1 points and 7.3 rebounds per game over the course of the tournament. Federiko and Ugusuk also played as teammates at the Omnia Basketball Academy in Finland.
Preferred walk-ons
Eli Sparkman: Sparkman will be entering his third season as a walk-on with South Carolina. Over the course of his college career, he has appeared in 16 games and played 95 total minutes. Sparkman has also scored 21 points and shot 5-for-12 (41.7 percent) from behind the arc.
Danny Grajzl: Last season was Grajzl’s first as a Gamecock, and the freshman guard was used sparingly by Paris. He made four appearances, played five minutes and recorded one statistic — a personal foul in the team’s season opener against USC Upstate.
Lance Piper: Piper committed to South Carolina in June 2023. The 6-foot-6 forward hails from New York but attended The Phelps School in Malvern, Pennsylvania. He reclassified to be a part of the Gamecocks’ class of 2024.
Weston Coggeshall: Coggeshall announced his commitment to the Gamecocks on May 16. A 6-foot-3, 175-pound shooting guard, he played varsity basketball at Philip Simmons High School in Charleston.
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