Dawn Staley usually gets college players ready for the pros. This time, she’s doing the opposite. The No. 3 South Carolina coach is bringing Alicia Tournebize, a 6-foot-7 French professional, to play college basketball. Tournebize got to Colombia only ten days after signing on January 1. As South Carolina gets ready to play Arkansas on Thursday, everyone wants to know one thing: Will the French star finally make her debut?

“No, probably not,” Dawn Staley told reporters in the area on Wednesday. “They’re ramping up, though, which is good.”

The coach said that neither Tournebize nor injured guard Ta’Niya Latson will probably play in the SEC road game. But in a promising sign, both players were seen participating in the final minutes of Wednesday’s practice.

This shows that they are making progress in their own preparation schedules.

The timeline explains the team’s cautious approach.

Less than a month ago, Tournebize played her last professional game in France. She went to Florida with the team last weekend, but she stayed on the bench.

Staley isn’t in a hurry. The 18-year-old is still filling out forms and getting used to a new system. It wouldn’t be fair to anyone to put her in an SEC competition without the right training.

Dawn Staley even mentioned that Tournebize has been doing “great” and that South Carolina hopes to get her in a game “soon.”

“She’s been a pro, so she understands what she needs to do to come in here,” Staley stated. “Get in the weight room, get a little treatment, come out here and practice a little bit. She hasn’t practiced a whole lot. We’ll continue to ramp her up. We don’t want to just throw her out there; it’s unfair to her to do that. But at some point, hopefully soon, we’ll get her out there in the game.”

The wait will be worth it.

Last September, Tournebize became the first French woman to dunk in a game. At the 2025 FIBA U18 EuroBasket, she scored an average of 12 points and 8.9 rebounds. With Joyce Edwards, who scores 21 points per game, South Carolina’s offense could get even more dangerous. While her debut won’t be on Thursday, it is expected soon.

Now, as Tournebize gets ready for her first game as a Gamecock, another player is returning to face her former team at Bud Walton Arena.

Dawn Staley to face Arkansas, with Maryam Dauda making homecoming

Maryam Dauda, a senior forward, will return to Bud Walton Arena for the first time since her sophomore year. The Bentonville native began her college career with the Razorbacks, so this trip back to Arkansas is more than just another conference game.

Dauda played in Fayetteville for two seasons before moving to South Carolina. She played in 68 games for Arkansas and started 33 of them in the 2023–24 season. Her stats showed that she was consistently good, scoring 6.7 points and grabbing 4.5 rebounds per game. She helped out at both ends of the floor and showed that she could be counted on in the frontcourt.

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This season, South Carolina has already beaten Arkansas once, 95–55 at home. In that game, she rose to the occasion against her former team, nearly posting a double-double with nine points and eight rebounds in just 14 minutes of action.

She has taken on a much larger role for the Gamecocks this season.

She played an average of 6.4 minutes off the bench last season. This year, she’s playing 13 minutes per game and getting better stats: 3.1 points and 3.9 rebounds.

Now, Dauda has another chance to show how much she’s grown since leaving Arkansas in Thursday’s game.