By james art 
WBB: The Re-Tour Begins – Michigan Review
WHO: #1 South Carolina vs. Michigan at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Time/TV: 19:30 on TNT/truTV. Grant Hill and Candice Parker will star on the show among others.
row: SC-21. The game started at 17.5 and was quickly bet to 21. The total is 134. The Gamecocks are +180 to repeat as national champions.
History: Carolina is 3-0, winning the three previous contests by an average of 15.7 points per game. The Gamecocks are 14-2 this season under Dawn Staley. The two programs have not met in the Dawn Staley era.
Last meeting: December 1, 1995 Gamecocks win 78-69 in Ann Arbor. Carolina won the only other game contested at a neutral site in 1980 by a score of 84-50.
Wolverine Intelligence
This is supposed to be a rebuilding year for Michigan under longtime coach Kim Barnes Arico. Barnes Arico was an assistant on Staley’s team that led the USA to gold medals in the 2014 FIBA U18 AmeriCup and 2015 FIBA U19 World Cup. Michigan went 20-14 (9-9 Big Ten) last season and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Laila Phelia was the Wolverines’ leading scorer last season, averaging 16.8 points. She has since moved to Texas. Second leading scorer Lauren Hansen has exhausted his eligibility, a rarity these days in college athletics. The Wolverines return just one of their top seven contributors from last season, Jordan Hobbs. Hobbs is a 6’3 senior guard who averaged 9.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3 assists last season. She is also a 38% 3-point shooter. The Wolverines landed one of the best duos of the 2024 recruiting cycle and one of the best classes in school history, highlighted by Top 20 players Syla Sword (4th) and Olivia Olson (20th) . Michigan’s recruiting class was ranked eighth nationally by ESPN.
Michigan is a guard-oriented team that will play five on the floor at the same time. Michigan landed three players from the transfer portal in Ali Van Timmeren (Boston College), Brooke K. Daniels (Oakland) and Yulia Grabovskaya (Middle Tennessee). Daniels scored the most career points of anyone on the roster, entering his junior season with 758 career points. In his first two years in Oakland, Daniels averaged 12.8 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.2 steals in 29.3 minutes per game.
Gamecock Notes
Still nothing Ashlyn Watkinstate of. When we learn something, we will pass it on. Freshman point guard Maddie McDaniel is also not expected to play tonight after undergoing minor surgery on her season-ending right knee. McDaniel wasn’t expected to see many minutes early in the season, regardless of her health. Star freshman Joyce Edwards will make her Gamecock debut, expect Edwards to be a Top 5 WNBA pick in four years. Raven Johnson, Te-Hina Paopao, Bree Hall, Chloe Kitts and Sania Fagin were the starters in both of South Carolina’s exhibition victories.
Besides Edwards and McDaniel, the only other new face is Mariam Dauda. You can read about Dauda here. Although not a new face, Adhel Tac will make his Gamecock debut tonight. She was recovering from knee surgery last season, but was with the Gamecocks for most of the season.
The Gamecocks’ 2024-25 schedule features 12 games against teams ranked in the preseason national polls. Five of those games are in non-conference action against teams in the top 11. Returning nine of the 11 starters from last season’s team, the Gamecocks return 83.9 percent of their field goals from last season, 78.0 percent of their rebounds, 89, 0 percent of their assists, 72.1 percent of their blocked shots and 98.4 percent of their three-pointers. The Gamecocks are 109-3 over the past three seasons.