{"id":197697,"date":"2026-05-27T20:55:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T00:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=197697"},"modified":"2026-05-27T20:55:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T00:55:28","slug":"gamecocks-receive-good-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/05\/27\/gamecocks-receive-good-news\/","title":{"rendered":"South Carolina Receives Good News With Transfer&#8217;s Withdrawal from NBA Draft, What&#8217;s Next For the Gamecocks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The South Carolina Gamecocks received good news earlier today with <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/shane-blakeney-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shane Blakeney&#8217;s<\/a> withdrawal from the 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/basketball\/nba\/nba-draft\/\" target=\"_self\">NBA draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Shane Blakeney withdraws from NBA draft consideration, and will be a Gamecock this upcoming season. <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GamecocksShow?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@GamecocksShow<\/a> The Morning Show <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/w8X4YDKcDh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/w8X4YDKcDh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 TheBigSpur.com (@TheBigSpurOn3) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheBigSpurOn3\/status\/2059640993947807957?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 27, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nGamecocks Receive Good News With Transfer&#8217;s Withdrawal from NBA Draft<\/h2>\n<p>Blakeney, a South Carolina native, transferred from Drexel earlier this offseason. He was the only Gamecock to go through the draft process, earning a workout with the<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/mavericks\/\" target=\"_self\"> Dallas Mavericks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBYFrxis65\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 2000px; aspect-ratio: 2000\/1333;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>Blakeney is a high-energy wing with two-way potential. Blakeney, who has improved each of his three collegiate seasons, is known for his physicality, shot-making, and defensive activity. The athletic 6-5 guard does have to improve his efficiency, decision-making, and rim-finishing ability &#8212; he converted less than 50% of his opportunities last season.<\/p>\n<p>Blakeney averaged 14.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.1 steals this past season. Blakeney also made two threes a game with shooting splits of 41.6\/35.9\/67.1. He scored in double-figures 28 times, topping the 20-point mark on four occassions. Additionally, he <span>earned first-team all-CAA honors and CAA all-defensive recognition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;For Carolina, he projects as an important piece who will get significant minutes, likely as a starter,&#8221; <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/teams\/south-carolina-gamecocks\/news\/south-carolinas-collin-murray-boyles-earns-final-nba-all-rookie-team-spot\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Miller of Gamecock Central<\/a> said about Blakeney&#8217;s role this upcoming season. &#8220;Blakeney will handle most of the top perimeter defensive assignments when on the floor and will be a serviceable scorer. His leaping ability and high motor will also fit in well with Lamont Paris\u2019 gang-rebounding philosophy.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"text-3xl font-extrabold mb-3 text-black\/80 break-words\">Gamecocks Still Have Work To Do With Roster<\/h2>\n<p>South Carolina is coming off a 13-19 campaign last season and a 14th-place finish in the SEC with a 4-14 record. The Gamecocks, who ranked 195th in the nation in offensive efficiency, were dead last in the conference in scoring at 70.6 points per game, even as they were 16th in the conference in field-goal and three-point shooting. The Gamecocks were outscored by 11 points a game.<\/p>\n<p>Last season marked South Carolina&#8217;s third losing season under the guidance of <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/coaches\/lamont-paris-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lamont Paris.<\/a> Paris, who enters his fifth campaign in 2026-27,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0owns a 62-68 record overall &#8212; making the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/college-basketball\/\" target=\"_self\">NCAA Tournament<\/a> in 2024. The Gamecocks have made just three NCAA Tournament appearances this century.<\/p>\n<p>South Carolina will have essentially a whole new roster next season. The Gamecocks lost 12 players from last year&#8217;s squad, including eight transfers.\u00a0 The Gamcecocks currently have 10 players on their roster, with 7 newcomers.<\/p>\n<p>So, the Gamecocks still have some roster work to do. Two of the Gamecocks seven newcomers have experience overseas as professionals &#8212;<a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/jakub-necas-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a0 Jakub Necas<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/aleksas-bieliauskas-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aleksas Bieliauskas<\/a>.\u00a0 It sounds like Paris could go that route to fill out his roster.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re very close to just being done with the vast majority of the pieces that we would predict would be key cogs in what we\u2019re doing,\u201d <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.thestate.com\/sports\/college\/university-of-south-carolina\/usc-mens-basketball\/article315598073.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paris said earlier this month<\/a>. \u201cThere are some international guys, even those that are still competing. Those can\u2019t be announced until after they\u2019re done competing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>South Carolina has reportedly increased its level of financial commitment this year.\u00a0 The Gamecocks spent around $4.5 million last season on their roster, with the majority going to former point guard Meechie Johnson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI give a ton of credit, again, to our president and to our board and to our athletic administration for making a commitment that allows us to be competitive,\u201d Paris said. \u201cIt\u2019s part of the reason why these interactions are the way that they are. Numbers are changing or going back. But in some of these situations we were in, it was nice to have the paddle to be able to be the last guy standing with some of these kids.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span>\u00a0Photo Credit: Steve Roberts, Imagn Images via Reuters Connect<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The South Carolina Gamecocks received good news earlier today with Shane Blakeney&#8217;s withdrawal from the 2026 NBA draft. Shane Blakeney withdraws from NBA draft consideration, and will be a Gamecock this upcoming season. @GamecocksShow The Morning Show https:\/\/t.co\/w8X4YDKcDh \u2014 TheBigSpur.com (@TheBigSpurOn3) May 27, 2026 Gamecocks Receive Good News With Transfer&#8217;s Withdrawal from NBA Draft Blakeney, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":197743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773,2,556,3],"tags":[3772,778],"class_list":["post-197697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","category-featured","category-nba-draft","category-news","tag-college-basketball-recruiting","tag-south-carolina-gamecocks"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197697"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197744,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197697\/revisions\/197744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}