BREAKING: How did Cam Scott’s commitment effect the South Carolina basketball recruiting rankings?.

South Carolina basketball won one of its top-rated commitments of the modern recruiting era this week, when Lexington High School star guard Cam Scott was freed from his signed NLI with the Texas Longhorns and dedicated his talents to the Gamecocks.

Scott was previously a 5-star talent, but his ranking dipped slightly as a senior. He is still ranked as a top-52 player in the country by every recruiting outlet, with three of them putting him in the top-34.

Depending on which site is used, Scott is ranked as the second, third, or fourth-best prospect to commit to the Gamecocks in the modern recruiting era. GG Jackson was a consensus 5-star prospect, and Scott, PJ Dozier, and Sindarius Thornwell had comparable prospect evaluations.

According to 247Sports’ composite team recruiting rankings, Scott’s pledge moves the Gamecocks into the top 20 in the national rankings. USC is currently ranked 17th, ahead of perennial recruiting giants such as the Villanova Wildcats, Texas Longhorns (this was a double-whammy for UT), UConn Huskies, Southern California Trojans, Ohio State Buckeyes, and Kentucky Wildcats. And, yeah, they are ahead of their rival Clemson Tigers.

Only three SEC teams are ranked higher than Carolina, with the Missouri Tigers, Alabama Crimson Tide, and LSU Tigers all inside the top 11. Of clubs with at least three commits, Lamont Paris’ Gamecocks are ranked 13th nationwide. The team rating is likely to be the highest for South Carolina basketball since the 2015 class, when PJ Dozier signed with the Gamecocks.

All three Gamecock commits (Cam Scott, Trent Noah, and Okku Federiko) are ranked among the top 160 national prospects by 247Sports. According to On3, that number increases to the top 130.

Scott is an offensive dynamo who can score at any level and plays with aggression and great athleticism on that end of the court. If he fulfills his full defensive potential as well (he is the all-time steals leader at LHS and has demonstrated great ability there), he might be a college superstar who finds himself in the NBA sooner rather than later.

Scott also fits a need for the Gamecocks, who lacked a starting-caliber shooting guard on their roster. Even as a freshman, Scott could be a big contributor and a possible starter for a squad that is seeking to make its first back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament since the ’90s.

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