South Carolina opens its season in Paris on Mon., Nov. 2, and the start is anything but soft. The No. 1 Gamecocks face No. 20 Maryland at noon ET at Adidas Arena in the first half of a doubleheader on, giving South Carolina women's basketball an early test in the same international setting that hosted its season opener two years ago.
The matchup matters now because South Carolina enters the year as the clear preseason favorite, but the opener is against a ranked opponent that has already seen it up close. Dawn Staley's team has won the last five meetings with Maryland and is 7-2 all-time in the series, with all eight games in the Staley era coming against top-20 teams. The most recent came in the 2025 NCAA Sweet 16 in Birmingham, Ala., when South Carolina beat Maryland and Chloe Kitts posted a 15-point, 11-rebound double-double.
That history gives the game weight, but it does not make it routine. South Carolina is ranked No. 1 in both preseason polls for the fifth time in the last seven seasons, and Staley is entering her 27th season as a head coach and 19th at South Carolina. She has built a program with six consecutive NCAA Final Fours, two National Championships and two other championship game appearances in that run, yet the opener still asks the same question every contender gets in November: how quickly can the roster replace what it lost from last year's record-setting offense?
The answer will begin to show against Maryland. South Carolina's 2024-25 team set the program scoring average record at 85.6 points per game and ranked second in program history at.500 from the field, so the bar is not hidden. The Gamecocks also know how to handle a difficult start, going 16-2 in season openers under Staley and 4-1 in those games against ranked teams. The last time they opened against a ranked opponent, they beat then-No. 10 Notre Dame in the inaugural Oui-Play on Nov. 6, 2023.
There is another layer to this trip. Alicia Tournebize returned to play on French soil this week after helping France win bronze at the 2025 FIBA U18 EuroBasket, a reminder that the game is not just a ranking exercise but a homecoming for one of the players in the building. South Carolina also had two exhibition games this preseason, including a 113-34 win over Benedict in which Tournebize and Ashlyn Watkins each grabbed double-digit rebounds and Jerzy Robinson finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and two steals in 25 minutes.
So the opener is both a showcase and a check. South Carolina begins the season in first place, but Maryland is the kind of opponent that can expose the early edges of a roster still sorting out its scoring after last season's surge. By the end of Mon., Nov. 2, the question will not be whether South Carolina is favored. It will be whether the favorite already looks ready.
