COLUMBIA — South Carolina women’s basketball started summer workouts but Justine Loubens hasn’t arrived on campus yet.
Loubens, an incoming freshman from France, is still working through the visa process and as of July 2, there is no timeline for her arrival, a team spokesperson confirmed to The Greenville News.
She committed to the program on April 29, becoming the 15th player on this year’s roster for coach Dawn Staley.
The 6-foot-1 guard most recently played professionally for La Roche Vendée Basket Club, where she averaged 6.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and shot 63.9% from the field in 24 games, according to South Carolina.
The program posted photos of players practicing at Carolina Coliseum with the caption “We are soooooooo back!” on both Instagram and X on June 22.
The NCAA rule is that once summer school starts, teams can engage in sessions for a period of eight weeks, but the exact start date is up to each team.
It’s not uncommon that the process is taking a bit for Loubens, as Alicia Tournebize went through a similar process in late December/early January. Tournebize is also from France and committed on Dec. 22, 2025 then arrived in Columbia on Jan. 1. She didn’t start practicing until the week of Jan. 7 because she had to get paperwork squared away.
Even though Staley’s entire roster is required to report back to campus for the summer session, it doesn’t mean players can’t have overlapping commitments related to basketball that cause them to miss some time in Columbia. For example, junior forward Joyce Edwards missed the first few days because she was still with USA Basketball.
Sophomore guard Agot Makeer missed time because she was one of 17 players invited to training camp for Canada’s Senior Women’s National Team. The camp ran from June 20-28 and then she returned to Columbia on June 30.
Tournebize was just in Knoxville, Tennessee, the weekend of June 26 to celebrate her mother’s Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame induction, and occasionally Staley even has to miss a day of workouts for previous/other commitments.
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at LKesin@usatodayco.com. Follow her on X@Lulukesin and Bluesky@bylulukesin.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Why Justine Loubens isn’t practicing with South Carolina, Dawn Staley yet
