Chloe Kitts has been here before. This NCAA Tournament experience is different in the sense she has more playing time responsibility and eyeballs on her, but she has done this before.

This should be her first tournament, though. Last year Kitts early-enrolled as a senior in high school, joining the Gamecocks in December and experiencing the Final Four run as mostly an observer. She played 11 total minutes in last year’s tournament, getting a little bit of late fourth quarter run in each of the first four games.

Flash forward a year and she opened up the NCAA Tournament with 21 points on 9-of-9 shooting in South Carolina’s 91-39 win over Presbyterian.

“I feel like it helped me a lot for sure,” Kitts told GamecockScoop about early enrollment. “It definitely helped me. Just coming in early, playing with Aliyah [Boston] and all those leaders last year, and then being able to get better, get bigger, get stronger, be where I’m at now.”

Of all her teammates, Kitts might be helping one the most. Not one of her fellow post players out there battling every night or one of the guards feeding her passes, but the one who has not played a minute yet.

Adhel Tac, the early enrollee who joined the program mid-season while she rehabs from a major knee injury, has been learning the ropes of college basketball from afar as she rehabs. Sitting on the bench during games, traveling for the road trips, and now seeing what the NCAA Tournament atmosphere is like.

“Rehab’s been coming along great,” Tac told GamecockScoop. “Taking it day by day, making progress. I’ve been put in a position to learn, and I feel like that’s going to help me greatly whenever it’s time for me to start playing.”

Learning is the biggest reason Tac is here at all, trying to maximize the value of a difficult situation where she would not have been able to play for her high school team. One way or another she had to spend this time rehabbing, preparing to help the 2024-25 Gamecocks as a true freshman.

So why not enroll early, and have 11 players currently experiencing everything she will start going through next year as a resource? And especially one player who knows exactly how much that extra year on the front end can benefit a player.

She has already made quite an impression on Dawn Staley without even playing a minute, too.

“I equate her defensively to Aliyah Boston,” Staley said. “She's communicative, she's high IQ, and she can move. I know she doesn't move very fast right now because she's on crutches, but she can really move.”

Kitts does not know what it feels like to rehab a significant injury in college, but she has gone through everything else in Tac is feeling. The wide-eyedness which comes from jumping into both life as a college athlete and the atmospheres which follow the No. 1 team in the country. The difference in practice schedules, game routines and everything else it takes to survive at this level.

There is no way to simulate it or prepare for it, but getting to watch it all unfold without playing might be the closest — and next best — thing.

“Everybody is talking to her and expanding our relationship with her,” Kitts said. “I’m happy she’s on the team, I’m happy she’s getting her knee right. She’s just very happy to be here, and we’re happy to have her.”

It is clear Tac already fits in well with this group. From her eccentric reactions on the bench to every positive moment to her moving around during pre-game shootarounds as much as her body will allow, this is already a member of the squad eagerly preparing to make an impact come November.

And there is nobody happier — or drawing more inspiration — from Kitts right now than Tac. She is watching, taking everything in and seeing a player who made the exact same decision as her 365 days prior experiencing success at the highest level.

“I have a really great relationship with Chloe,” Tac said. “I’ve spoken to her multiple times about her experience and her graduating early. We talked about it, it’s a day-by-day experience. It just makes me so happy to see Chloe successful how she is now, especially because she was in my shoes last year, and now look at her and what she’s been able to do.”

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