The South Carolina women’s basketball team is ecstatic after Maryam Dauda announced she would join the program from Arkansas, with the squad adding important depth down low.

It appears that South Carolina women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley had Maryam Dauda in her sights long before landing the transfer in the portal from Arkansas this week. Staley’s team faced Dauda in February, and after a 98-61 win, she complimented the post player.

Dauda, who will join the defending national champions in 2024-25, scored 19 points against the Gamecocks on Feb. 29. She averaged 13.1 points and 6.3 rebounds for the season.

“She’s good,” Staley said of Dauda via The State. “A big that has great footwork. A big that could shoot the 3. A big that keeps you off balance. I mean, she can put the ball on the floor. She’s really, really, really good. I was very, very impressed. I found myself just complimenting her with what she was able to do out there on the floor.”

Staley was predictably excited to complete the transfer addition on Wednesday, posting on social media, “A birdie just flew in the nest!” Dauda will provide a needed boost to South Carolina’s interior after Kamilla Cardoso left for the WNBA Draft where she went No. 3 overall to the Chicago Sky.

Arkansas head coach Mike Neighbors has not directly commented on Dauda’s departure or the exits of multiple other players. “I don’t talk about kids or individuals situations ever be it in season or out of season so I am still not going to talk about individuals,” Neighbors told reporters in April.

“I will say that everybody has a different path and that creates a different path for us. But we knew this day was coming, we had a plan, we started executing it. We have dealt with them all individually. It happens one of three ways – they come and inform you of their decision, some that you have conversations with and you come to where you come and then you just have some that want to explore their options with the option of coming back.”

After the Razorbacks exodus, which resembled that of Oregon State across the country, Neighbors faces an uphill battle competing in the SEC next campaign.

The Gamecocks, among the conference’s elite squads, will return several cornerstones from their undefeated title run that concluded with a triumph over Iowa last month. Their backcourt figures to be particularly loaded, as MiLaysia Fulwiley tries to win a starting role despite Tessa Johnson, Raven Johnson and Te-Hina Paopao all still in the picture.

That fierce internal competition isn’t a bad thing, though. Staley likes to build deep squads and often expects underclassmen to be content with coming off the bench – a reality that doesn’t exist in many other places during the frenzy of the open transfer portal era. South Carolina will welcome another top-10 recruiting class this year.