Men's Basketball . August 7, 2026

Gamecocks Travel to The Bahamas for Pair of Summer Trip Contests

Live Stats (Aug. 8) Live Video (Aug. 8) Live Stats (Aug. 10) Live Video (Aug. 10) Coach Paris Bahamas Preview Kory Mincy Bahamas Preview Camden Heide Bahamas Preview

NASSAU, THE BAHAMAS (Aug. 7, 2026) – South Carolina Men’s Basketball is headed back to The Bahamas this weekend for the first time since the 2023-24 season in which South Carolina tied the program record with 26 wins. The Gamecocks will be on the island from Aug. 7-11 and will play a pair of games against Victoria (Canada) on Saturday, Aug. 8 and The Bahamas National Team on Monday, Aug. 10.

South Carolina will stay at The Grand Hyatt Baha Mar in Nassau and will play at the Baha Mar Convention Center. Both games are set for 4 p.m. (ET) and will have live stats provided by StatBroadcast and will be streamed live on FloSports. Fans are encouraged to follow @GamecockMBB on X for links to the games each day.

For the second consecutive season, the Gamecocks’ roster features 12 newcomers with seven student-athletes arriving to Columbia via the transfer portal. Carolina returns three lettermen from last year’s roster, headlined by Grant Polk who appeared in 30 games, averaging 12.9 minutes per game and 3.8 points per outing, while registering a 32.9 percent clip from deep.

The Gamecocks hit the portal hard this year, bringing talent and experience to the Midlands. Kory Mincy is coming off a Second Team All-Atlantic 10 season last year with George Mason, averaging 14.3 points per game as well as 2.9 assists per outing. Shane Blakeney made the trek back home to his home state after spending the last three seasons at Drexel. The Rock Hill, S.C. native was named Second Team All-CAA after averaging a team best 14.2 points in 2025-26, while also pulling down 5.1 boards and handing out 2.5 assists.

Alongside the newly acquired guards is Texas transfer and sharpshooter Camden Heide. Heide has appeared in 110 games at the collegiate level, including 12 NCAA Tournament appearances in addition to competing in the 2024 National Championship game with Purdue. Aleksas Bieliauskas will don the Garnet & Black after spending one season at Wisconsin. The rising sophomore played 20.1 minutes per game for the Badgers, averaging 4.9 points per game and 4.4 rebounds.

Fifth-year head coach Lamont Paris was able to bring in three international standouts in Mathias Alessanco (redshirting), Juan Fernández and Hugo López. Fernández, hailing from Argentina, is coming off his fifth season playing in Liga ACB, the top league in Spain. Last season, he averaged 7.7 points and 4.4 rebounds in 19.7 minutes of action. López, a Spain native, played in Primera FEB, the second division of Spanish basketball. The forward averaged 2.7 points and 3.5 rebounds in 10.9 minutes of action for Movistar Estudiantes.

South Carolina welcomed three freshmen to this year’s roster in Alessanco, as well as Marcus Johnson and South Carolina native Ford Wilder. Johnson hails from Cleveland, Ohio and was named Ohio Mr. Basketball in back-to-back years (2025, 2026), becoming just the seventh player all-time to accomplish the feat. The consensus four-star prospect was slotted as the No. 6 point guard prospect nationally and No. 3 player in the state of Ohio after finishing his prep career with 2,364 points.