USC basketball’s Chloe Kitts is entering her second season ‘bigger, stronger, better’

At times, it wasn’t easy: Moving five hours away from home, leaving high school months into senior year, joining the nation’s No. 1 team on the most accelerated of accelerated timelines.

But Chloe Kitts, the first South Carolina women’s basketball midyear enrollee of the Dawn Staley era, wouldn’t have changed a thing about her freshman season.

“I feel like this year, it was just a learning experience,” Kitts told The State in March ahead of the Final Four. “I’m very blessed.”

As USC enters one of its more interesting offseasons in recent memory, Kitts, the former No. 17 recruit in her class, is positioned for a fascinating fall. Among the Gamecocks’ seven returning scholarship players, nobody else played fewer minutes or scored fewer points.

But nobody else jumped up a recruiting class, suited up for South Carolina mere weeks after committing to the program and had 10 points and seven rebounds in her college debut.

Unpredictable and unique as it was, Kitts said that journey has her primed — and confident — to take on any and all roles for the retooling Gamecocks as a smarter, more settled-in sophomore.

“I’ll play wherever Coach needs me to,” she said.

Kitts, a 6-foot-2 wing from Florida, ended up playing in 18 of South Carolina’ 37 games in 2022-23 as the team swept the SEC’s regular-season and tournament titles and, in its quest for a national championship repeat, went undefeated up until a Final Four loss to Iowa.

That followed a whirlwind fall in which she committed to South Carolina on Nov. 4, signed her letter of intent on Nov. 9 and made her South Carolina debut on Dec. 18 against Charleston Southern once she and the program got clarification she was immediately eligible to play.

To recap: That’s a commitment, a reclassification and a college basketball debut — a year earlier than planned — in the span of six weeks. Forgive Kitts if she was a bit overwhelmed.

Which, with the benefit of hindsight, she has no problem admitting. Asked where she was proudest of her growth as a freshman, Kitts didn’t hesitate.

“Mentally,” she said. “Coming from high school to here, it’s hard. And people don’t understand how mental it is. Even if you don’t come early, high school to college, it’s still really different. So it’s really hard, but I like staying confident and feel like that’s what I’ve gotten better at.”

Life as a freshman

Kitts, like an overwhelming majority of top recruits, had to grapple with a reduced role. A far reduced role. In high school she was a MaxPreps All-American and five-star recruit, someone who averaged 18.7 points and 8.2 rebounds per game and won a FIBA gold medal with Team USA.

But she spent the majority of Year 1 with South Carolina on the bench. That wasn’t necessarily a surprise, given USC’s loaded roster that ultimately produced a school-record five WNBA Draft picks (Aliyah Boston, Laeticia Amihere, Zia Cooke, Brea Beal and Victaria Saxton).

After scoring 10 points in 23 minutes against Charleston Southern and playing 16 minutes against Coastal Carolina the next game, Kitts only played 10-plus minutes in three of her final 14 games (all regular-season blowouts of SEC opponents) and 11 total postseason minutes.

And when she did play, she rarely shot, preferring to move the ball and defer to other players on South Carolina’s bench unit — especially senior and fan favorite Olivia Thompson. After scoring 10 points on nine shots in her debut, Kitts had 19 points the rest of the season.

“I’m not the type of person who’s going to jack a shot up,” Kitts said. “That’s not me … I (would) always look for everybody else, especially Liv so she can get her shot.”

Instead, Kitts, locked in on off-court maintenance: improving her mental game; picking Boston’s brain for advice and tips; and collaborating with women’s basketball sports performance coach Molly Binetti to achieve her stated goal of getting “bigger, stronger, better,” as Kitts once put it.

“Molly, she’s helped me get stronger,” Kitts said in March. “I’ve gained like 13 pounds since I’ve been here. Just trying to put weight on me so I’ll be ready. She helps me a lot. We have a good relationship.”

Kitts played multiple positions in high school but said she anticipates playing on the perimeter in 2023-24 for the Gamecocks. She’ll certainly have an opportunity to make an impact — especially as a 3-point shooter, which Staley has routinely touted as one of Kitts’ best qualities — with seven scholarship players moving on from last year’s roster.

And she doesn’t regret her head start for one second.

“It was hard,” Kitts said. “I missed out on high school basketball, McDonald’s (All-American honors), all that stuff. ... But I’m here.”