After a 2025-26 season that featured a fifth straight Southeastern Conference regular-season title, a league record-tying five All-SEC selections, a sixth consecutive NCAA Final Four appearance and a second straight NCAA national championship game, it is time for the WNBA draft-eligible players to prepare to join the professional ranks.
This season, South Carolina has three prospects entering this process: senior guards Raven Johnson and Ta'Niya Latson, as well as senior center Madina Okot, all three of whom have been invited to attend the WNBA draft. The draft will be held at The Shed at Hudson Yards in New York City Monday night.
The trio will be being drafted in the midst of a shift in the landscape for the WNBA as well. A recently agreed collective bargaining agreement between the WNBA and WNBPA includes increases in the salary cap, player salaries themselves and contains several other benefits for players.
That is far from the only change that is shaking the proverbial snow globe in the American women's basketball world, though. There are two new franchises joining the league, the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo, and there was an expansion draft on April 3, as the teams begin to bring together their inaugural rosters.
The league is also in its free agency period. Teams and players have been allowed to sign new contracts since April 11, and there are many star players on the move.
This backdrop makes plotting potential landing spots for the soon-to-be professionals leaving the Gamecock ranks quite difficult. But wherever they go, each player has a range of skills and experiences they will be bringing with them to the next level.
Raven Johnson
ESPN mock draft placement: Pick 10
Johnson has been the offensive distributor and defensive anchor who has helped lead the Gamecocks to a title in 2023-24, and came close to doing so twice more in 2024-25 and 2025-26, with two losses in the national championship game.
In the 2025-26 season, Johnson made strides as a scorer with a career high in points per game and field goal percentage, 9.9 points on 48.6% from the field.
Johnson also solidified her growth as a shooter from beyond the arc, making 39.8% of her 3-point shots with 103 attempts from distance on the season.
She has also developed into a well-rounded scorer inside the arc, able to be strong attacking the rim and get to her spots as a midrange shooter.
Another note on her scoring is her notable jump in free-throw shooting, with her having a career high in attempts and percentage across the season, shooting 82% on 50 attempts.
As a defender, she was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year, as her intelligence and intensity showed in games such as South Carolina’s Final Four matchup against UConn and Naismith trophy winner Sarah Strong.
As a distributor, Johnson had a career high in assists per game at 5.1, good for the sixth-highest in the SEC. Her assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.2 is also a career best.
With a season where she put various aspects of her game on display and was an All-SEC Second Team selection, her draft stock appears to have risen in the past year.
Ta’Niya Latson
ESPN mock draft placement: Pick 13
In her last year at Florida State University, Latson asserted herself as one of the nation's best, leading the country in scoring with 25.2 points per game.
She is quick to attack the basket off the dribble and has good strength and touch when she gets there, while showing patience and a knack for being deliberate in getting to her spots on the floor.
Latson also has the ability to draw fouls, as her 7.8 free throw attempts per game were seventh in the country in her final season with the Seminoles.
She transferred to South Carolina to reunite with her high school teammate in Johnson, and while the volume dropped off, her efficiency and impact was still high: Latson’s points per game dropped to 14.1 in 2025-26, but she hit a career high in field goal percentage, shooting 48.6%.
She also made herself a presence on the defensive end, with 1.7 steals per game, which was 14th in the SEC, down from 2024-25’s figure of 2.2, which was fifth in the Atlantic Coast Conference, but a high mark regardless.
A final key improvement, was her ability to make reads with the basketball, which was evident in a career-best assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.0. She was also an All-SEC Second Team selection with the Gamecocks.
There is room to grow beyond the arc, as her 3-point shooting percentage has generally hovered in the low-to-mid 30s, but she is a well-rounded scoring guard who should be able to make an impact at the WNBA level.
Madina Okot
ESPN mock draft placement: 15th pick
Okot, born in Mumias, Kenya, was unable to secure any more years of NCAA eligibility and is now WNBA draft-eligible. She played two years of basketball at Kaya Tiwi Secondary School and Zetech University in Kenya before coming to the United States to play basketball at Mississippi State and South Carolina.
In her two years in NCAA basketball, the 6-foot-6-inch center established herself as a force on the glass and as a defensive anchor.
She averaged 11.3 points, 9.6 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game while with the Bulldogs in 2024-25, and averaged 12.8 points, 10.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game in the 2025-26 season at South Carolina, becoming an All-SEC Second Team selection.
Okot led the SEC in rebounds per game, while also ranking in the top 10 in blocks per game. She displayed good shooting touch inside the arc, shooting 64.9% from the field with no 3-point attempts at Mississippi State.
But at South Carolina, she demonstrated her shooting touch beyond the arc as well — albeit at low volume — shooting 44.8% from the 3-point line in the 2025-26 season in addition to shooting 57.5% from the field.