South Carolina’s pursuit of its top transfer portal target came up empty on Friday when Virginia point guard Kymora Johnson announced she would be returning to Charlottesville for her senior season. The decision leaves the Gamecocks with a pressing and unresolved question: who runs the point guard position in 2026-27?
The Problem in Plain Sight
As it stands, South Carolina has just one true point guard on next season’s roster — rising junior Maddy McDaniel. She has been a dependable presence off the bench, averaging 4.3 points and 2.7 assists last season while maintaining an impressive career assist-to-turnover ratio of 4.09. But McDaniel has made just one career start and has dealt with four separate injury absences during her time with the program. Relying solely on her carries real risk.
Missing out on Johnson was the program swinging for the fences and coming up short. The focus now shifts to finding a more modest but meaningful addition before the window closes.
Who Remains Available?
Madison St. Rose
The Princeton guard still has a year of eligibility remaining after sitting out the 2024-25 season — a redshirt year made necessary because the Ivy League does not permit graduate students to compete. Capable of playing both guard spots, St. Rose averaged 15.8 points per game last season. The concern is her three-point shooting, which sits below 30% for her career. Reports suggest she has already narrowed her choices to Notre Dame and Virginia Tech, making her a long shot for Columbia.
KK Bransford
Bransford entered the transfer portal around the same time Johnson withdrew from it. A three-year Notre Dame player who missed the entire 2024-25 season due to injury, Bransford was recruited and listed as a combo guard but played point guard throughout high school. While it has been some time since she operated as a full-time point guard, she brings veteran experience that would add depth to the position.
Beyond Those Two
Options thin out considerably after St. Rose and Bransford. South Carolina could look to the mid-major ranks for a guard with experience — someone who may not be capable of heavy minutes at this level but who would at least provide another body at the position. There is also the possibility that a Power Four point guard still decides to enter the portal before Monday’s deadline, though that scenario would require some fortunate timing.
What If They Come Up Empty?
It would not be the first time South Carolina has navigated a point guard shortage. In the 2021-22 season, backup point guard Raven Johnson tore her ACL just two games in, leaving Destanni Henderson as the only true point guard on the roster, with forward Laeticia Amihere stepping in behind her. The Gamecocks won the national championship that year.
If history is any guide, South Carolina has shown it can adapt. Should no portal addition materialize, the program would likely lean heavily on McDaniel while calling on players who, while not natural point guards, ran their high school offenses. Seniors Tessa Johnson and Chloe Kitts, along with sophomore Agot Makeer, all served as their respective team’s primary ball-handler growing up — not as true lead guards, but as the best athletes trusted to bring the ball up the floor. Both Tessa Johnson and Makeer took on point guard duties last season during McDaniel’s injury absences, and Kitts — who arrived in college as a guard before developing into a forward — has a ten-assist triple-double already on her résumé.
It would not be the ideal solution. But it may be the one South Carolina has to live with.
