The phrase “Welcome Home” has commonly been used as a recruiting slogan for South Carolina’s football program. But for the men’s basketball program, it can be said that the recruiting focus is on “Staying Home.”
The Gamecock men’s basketball team features eight players from the state of South Carolina for the 2024-2025 season, with half of that group being from the Columbia-metro area.
Four of those in-state players are returning from last season's roster. Sophomore forward Collin Murray-Boyles and redshirt freshman guard Arden Conyers grew up in Columbia while senior guard Jacobi Wright and junior guard Zachary Davis grew up in Fort Mill and Orangeburg, respectively.
Recruiting home-grown talent is a priority for the basketball staff and is imperative to the success of Gamecock basketball, special assistant to the head coach Carey Rich said.
“Anytime that this team has been good, there’s always been a correlation with having South Carolinians on the basketball team,” Rich said. “You go back to the Final Four run, the best two players were from South Carolina. You go back to coach Eddie Folger, his days, his best players were from South Carolina.”
The Gamecocks have two of its former players who grew up in South Carolina in the NBA with GG Jackson II at the Memphis Grizzlies’ and the PJ Dozier with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Rich said he would try to keep as many of South Carolina’s best players home as possible when he was hired at South Carolina in 2022.
“I didn’t promise that we’ll get every top player in South Carolina,” Rich said. “But the one thing I did vow to do was to make it hard for any top player to say no to us.”
The Gamecocks added new players from South Carolina in the offseason from the transfer portal in graduate center Nick Pringle, who transferred from Alabama and grew up in Seabrook, and sophomore center Jordan Butler, who transferred from Missouri and is from Greenville. South Carolina also brought in freshman guard Cam Scott, who is from Lexington, and walk-on freshman Weston Coggellshaw, who is from Charleston.
Scott, Pringle and Butler were all ranked as top recruits from South Carolina coming out of high school. Scott joined the Gamecocks on the back of winning South Carolina High School Gatorade Player of the Year in 2023 and 2024 .
Scott originally committed to Texas, before flipping his commitment to the Gamecocks in April 2024. He couldn’t be more thankful to play in his home state, he said.
“You know, just having this whole state behind me,” Scott said. “To me, it feels like I can go down the road, see my mom, pretty much every day."
Davis said players staying home means they have something they want to prove and that they are proud to play in the state.
“I feel like people have a lot of family people and a lot of people they want to have at the game to support them,” Davis said.
Scott also said that it is amazing to see where they lie on the court with the background connection the players have.
Wright said the amount of players on the roster from South Carolina gives the Gamecocks a strong recruiting foundation in-state. It shows players growing up in the state that they can represent their home state from their hometown school, he said.
Scott and Murray-Boyles have been playing together since elementary school. That familiarity makes the younger players more keen to pick up on the things being taught to them, Murray-Boyles said.
"It's really fun having these guys on the team, and it can take in a lot more since they're more familiar," Murray-Boyles said. "Like, being around a whole bunch of people you grew up with allows you to take in a lot more and think of stuff on the same page."
For Conyers, that connection with teammates like Murray-Boyles and Scott goes all the way back to before they stepped on campus.
The trio of players has met up in the past during their high school days when playing for Westwood, A.C. Flora and Lexington High schools, respectively, during events like the 2022 South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association's live team camp.
“I was playing against them guys,” Conyers said. “And for us to become teammates it just builds a bond. From playing against each other to playing with each other, it’s just crazy.”
The home-state Gamecocks will officially open their season in front of their fellow South Carolinians when they and the rest of the roster face the North Florida Ospreys at Colonial Life Arena on Nov. 4. The game will tip off at 7 p.m. and will stream live on SEC Network+.