WATCH: South Carolina's Tessa Johnson shares teammate Maddy McDaniel putting in the work during practice

On Wednesday, South Carolina women's basketball star Tessa Johnson shared a short clip on her Instagram story of Maddy McDaniel practicing in the offseason. The NCAA shared the clip on X.

"⌛ ⌛," the Gamecocks sophomore captioned the post while tagging McDaniel and assistant coach Khadijah Sessions.

McDaniel joined South Carolina ranked the No. 12 recruit in the Class of 2024 by ESPN. During her high school basketball career at Bishop McNamara, McDaniel won back-to-back MaxPreps Maryland Player of the Year awards in her junior and senior seasons. She was also named on the McDonald’s All-American team after recording 17.9 points, 5.0 assists and 4.7 steals per game as a senior.

McDaniel earned the 2023 Washington Catholic Athletic Conference Player of the Year honor after she averaged 18.6 points, 5.4 assists and 5.2 steals.

Dawn Staley reflects on Tessa Johnson's performance with South Carolina

South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley spoke about sophomore guard Tessa Johnson's experience during her two seasons with the Gamecocks. Staley spoke ahead of South Carolina's first-round game of the women's NCAA Tournament against Tennessee Tech.

In an interview that was shared on Threads on Mar. 20, Staley said Johnson's performance last year would influence how she would perform this year:

"Tessa's got to play some of our best basketball. And she had such a decent freshman year. You know that as a sophomore, you have to build off that. And sometimes it doesn't happen. I don't think she had the best season. She probably had as good of a season than she had last year.

"But once you've experienced going to a Final Four and winning the national championship, you have the experience of getting yourself and building yourself up towards playing your best basketball."

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Staley added that Tessa Johnson was not afraid or second-guessing herself. The Gamecocks coach admitted that the sophomore does not make all of her shots on the court, but she still admired her mentality and the way she was generally.