Myisha Hines-Allen and 11 other South Carolina women’s basketball alumnae made WNBA opening-day rosters in 2026, a clean sweep after all 12 entered training camp in April. The Gamecocks’ alumni were not cut as the league trimmed down for opening night, and South Carolina finished with 12 roster spots, the most in the SEC.
The result gives Dawn Staley’s program another hard number to hang its reputation on. South Carolina has now sent 23 Gamecocks to the WNBA in program history, including 19 during Staley’s 17-year tenure, and its nine additions to the league over the last five years are the most of any college program. The SEC had 36 alumnae on opening-day rosters, including players on developmental contracts, but South Carolina led the conference by a wide margin with 12.
That steady pipeline has become one of the clearest measures of how far the program has traveled. Six Gamecocks have been named to the WNBA All-Rookie Team, three have won Rookie of the Year honors, two have won WNBA championships and three have earned spots on at least one WNBA All-Star team.
The strength of the opening-day list also highlights how rare it is for every invited alumna to survive camp. Hines-Allen was among the South Carolina players whose place on a roster was secured by opening day, though the team she will play for was not specified. The broader achievement is what matters most for Staley’s program: it placed more former players on league rosters than any other SEC school and did so without losing a single one of the 12 who entered camp in April.
For South Carolina, that kind of consistency is no longer an isolated burst. It is the standard, and in 2026 it showed up from training camp to opening night without a break.
