It took almost three months, but the 2021-22 Gamecocks are finally all in Columbia.

The freshmen arrived back in mid-June, but they arrived while Dawn Staley, Destanni Henderson, and Aliyah Boston were in Puerto Rico for the AmeriCup Tournament. They returned, but Staley was off in Las Vegas and Tokyo with the USA national team. Kamilla Cardoso, who was also at the AmeriCup Tournament, finally arrived in late July, right after Sania Feagin left for the U19 WorldCup. Staley returned following the Olympics, then came Laeticia Amihere, who was with Team Canada all summer. Finally, Feagin returned this week, and at last all the wayward birdies are in the nest.

The Gamecocks are still in the summer workout period, which limits what they are able to do, but there are still things Staley and staff would like to learn before preseason practice begins September 28.

1. Which freshmen will be ready to contribute on November 9?

South Carolina opens the season with a bang, playing at NC State in what will be a top ten, if not top five, matchup. That’s a measuring stick game (and why South Carolina has “Final Four Fridays” this summer), not a learning game. And even if it were a cupcake game, with South Carolina returning its entire roster from last season, the freshmen aren’t going to have the luxury of learning on the job. They’re going to have to do it in practice and be ready to go the moment they check in the game.

Staley has said, “They know what they signed up for.” But when I was in high school, I knew everything, as did a lot of folks. How quickly can these birdies a) learn that they don’t know everything and b) learn how to contribute to a title contender? There’s a good chance that an extremely talented player won’t play much this season.

2. Who plays well together?

As Staley has often said, it’s not just “who is our top five?” (although that could easily be another question). I see all the posts about how the Gamecocks could play fantastical lineups like all centers, or all point guards, all Niyas and Brees, or go with a platoon system, rotating five players at a time. Those are all fun ideas, but they aren’t practical (sorry to burst the bubble). For example, maybe Boston and Cardoso get in each other’s way and need more space to operate, or maybe they are A’ja Wilson and Liz Cambage and that’s your crunch-time frontcourt. Maybe Saniya Rivers is a strong scorer right away, but she is better with the second unit where she can be a focal point than as a starter where Boston and Zia Cooke are getting most of the shots. Or maybe she’s shooting 45% from three and can eliminate Boston’s double teams. There is only one basketball. That’s why there is always room for players like Brea Beal, Victoria Saxton, and LeLe Grissett: somebody has to affect the game without needing the ball in their hands.

3. What does the rotation look like?

This is the cousin of #2. There are only 200 minutes to go around, and they have to be used wisely. Some things are obvious: Henderson averaged 34.0 minutes per game last season; that needs to come down. Boston averaged 30.4 minutes, and you probably want that to come down a couple of minutes. Cardoso should help that immediately: I can’t imagine, other than for certain specific matchups, Staley will ever use a lineup that doesn’t have either Boston or Cardoso on the floor.

That being said, not all minutes are equal. Any time Boston is on the bench, even as good as Cardoso, Amihere, and Saxton are, the other team is breathing a sigh of relief because they don’t have to worry about a reigning national player of the year. When Cooke gets hot, she’s as good of a scorer as anybody in the country, but she needs touches to get hot. One minute of Victaria Saxton is not equal to one minute of Aliyah Boston.

In 2018-19, South Carolina had a deep, talented team that went about 12 deep. But Staley could never figure out the rotation and there was never much distinction between the best player and the 12th-best player. That team, South Carolina’s worst since 2012, is best described as dysfunctional. Staley can’t let that happen again. Roles need to be clear.

4. Communication

If I wanted to sound negative, I could have called this “ego management.” It’s something Staley has focused on since that dysfunctional season. When Mikiah Herbert Harrigan entered the transfer portal and then changed her mind, Staley admitted fault for not communicating better, and Herbert Harrigan returned. Since then, Staley has made communication a priority.

I think Victaria Saxton knows Aliyah Boston means more to the Gamecocks than she does, and in a way that is part of Saxton’s value. Similarly, going into the NCAA tournament, Staley essentially told Elysa Wesolek, you’re not going to practice and you’re not going to play unless we have foul trouble late in the first half, and then you had better be ready to go out there. Wesolek was, and she filled a valuable role. In high school Brea Beal was the all-time leading scorer in her conference, but she understood that being a lockdown defender is what would get her on the floor at South Carolina. There will need to be more Beals, Wesoleks, and Saxtons this season.

In April, Staley said, “We’ll definitely have to do a lot of talking. We’ll have to make sure everybody’s happy and create an atmosphere of communication so they’re not left assuming. We’ll nag you before we assume.”

There will be some McDonald’s All-Americans spending a lot of time watching basketball this season, and the staff has to make sure they understand the situation and their value.

5. What effect did international play have on players?

One of the neat things about the FIBA U19 World Cup was that the team huddles were mic’d up and broadcast live. You got to hear what coaches were saying without it being edited down to a four-second sound bite. During one timeout head coach Cori Close said (I’m paraphrasing) “We want to get this player a shot. We’re going to inbound here, screen here, and if the double team follows pass here and she’ll be open here. If there’s no double, pass there and she’ll be open there.” The team nodded, walked out, and then completely botched the play right from the moment the official handed them the ball. They got the ball back, ran it again and got the right player the shot, but it still wasn’t what Close wanted.

The reason I mention that is because it’s really anybody’s guess what effect international play will have. The coaches are the cream of the crop, but they are often trying to pull a team together after a few weeks, not the couple of months the Gamecocks have. On the plus side, Amihere was phenomenal in the AmeriCup, and she and Cardoso each staked their claim as the future of their national teams. That should be a nice confidence boost. Feagin probably got to see basketball at a higher level than she’s ever seen before, so hopefully that’s a boost.