Joyce Edwards has not even suited up for the South Carolina Gamecocks nonetheless, but she already understands what she wishes to reach at the following amount. The Camden (SC) Significant Faculty star—and the No. 2-ranked participant in the class of 2024—is a functional, 6-2 ahead who can knock down shots, end at the rim, block shots on the defensive close and set up big time figures. In the condition championship video game, she had a monster double-double of 27 points and 20 rebounds, as properly as 6 blocks, to support direct the Bulldogs to their second consecutive 3-A condition title.
But for Edwards, this is just the starting.
“When I go to South Carolina, my primary goal is to just get on the flooring, be a defensive player—because you can not get on the ground without the need of defense—and then sculpting my offense to be what the workforce desires,” she states. “I’m not coming in wanting to be, like, the star player and none of that. I’m just striving to come in and do what the team wants and match into my role.”
She’s established to sign up for a software that’s synonymous with successful. By the time we go to push, South Carolina has just posted back again-to-back undefeated frequent seasons, received its next SEC Match championship in a row, and is gearing up for March Madness as the No. 1 seed. It is that prestige—as well as the legacy of Dawn Staley, now in her 16th period because getting more than the program in ’08—that led Edwards to dedicate to the Gamecocks in the very first location. After narrowing down her prime 3 educational facilities to SC, LSU and Clemson, Edwards was thinking about signing later on in the signing period, and it was Dawn who she felt genuinely revered her selection.
“The way Dawn responded was entirely various from everybody else. She was like, Okay, why do you experience this way? I feel like it was definitely just the coaching. What Dawn claimed just strike me a minor bit diverse than each individual other mentor.”
Over the yrs, Dawn has molded potential WNBA legends, from the 2023 WNBA Rookie of the Calendar year Aliyah Boston to A’ja Wilson, a two-time WNBA champion and the 2023 Finals MVP, whom Edwards had a chance to meet up with when South Carolina beat Maryland this earlier November. Wilson even gave her some assistance.
“[She] was speaking about how when she arrived into South Carolina, and they experienced her starting off,” Edwards remembers of their discussion, “and she arrived out the subsequent recreation and did what ever she experienced to do. I sense like her changeover from staying extra of a purpose player at SC to her obtaining to be that a lot more dominant participant in the paint and acquire them to the nationwide championship. Just the full process and her mentality in the course of and the progression she experienced by means of that, that is one particular of the biggest points that I took away from it.”
Edwards sees similarities in their online games, as well, and says her dad normally compares her to Wilson. “Obviously, she’s remaining-handed, but she has the middy in the bag. She can push, she can facial area up, she posts up. All these points that she does—obviously, I’m not performing it [at] as high a level as her—but I’m carrying out a great deal of related items at my age.”
As she wraps up her senior yr at Camden—Edwards also plays soccer, which she says has aided with her conditioning and footwork on the court—she’s already hunting forward to the possibilities that await just 40 minutes away in Columbia.
“I feel like for some players, it could unquestionably be overwhelming,” she suggests. “But then I just try to remember that I participate in my most effective when I’m heading from and enjoying with wonderful players in practice and stuff like that. I come to feel like at South Carolina, with the competition I’ll be actively playing towards in follow, like, these are WNBA legends. These men and women are about to go to the League and do good points. Going up against them in follow will just make me far better, and ideally when I present up in a activity, I think I’ll be seriously well prepared.”
Deyscha Smith is an Affiliate Editor at SLAM. Abide by her on Instagram and X, @deyschasmith.
Portraits by Kai McNeil. Abide by him on Instagram, @thekaimac.
The post No. 2 Ranked Senior Joyce Edwards Talks All-All-around Video game, Dawn Staley and Her Long run at South Carolina appeared first on SLAM.