Alicia Tournebize doesn't know what her emotions will be like when South Carolina women's basketball's 2026-27 season opener in Paris actually starts.
Tournebize, a 6-foot-7 sophomore for the Gamecocks, is from Vichy, France, just under 200 miles south of Paris.
Before joining coach Dawn Staley's roster in December, she played for Tango Bourges Basket, a French professional club in the EuroLeague.
To begin her first full season with No. 1 ranked South Carolina, she and her team will play No. 17 Maryland on Nov. 2 (noon ET, ESPN). It's part of the Oui-Play women's college basketball doubleheader at Adidas Arena.
"I'm gonna try to treat it like other games, but the context is much different," Tournebize said in an interview with the Greenville News. "It's gonna be weird because it's two different parts (of my life), playing in South Carolina and then playing back in France."
Staley took her team to Paris in 2023 for the first Oui Play event, as it marked the first NCAA regular-season basketball game in France. It's since become a four-team event. Oklahoma and North Carolina play after South Carolina and Maryland.
The game was announced last November, before Tournebize came to South Carolina and well before Staley added a second French player in freshman Justine Loubens in April.
Tournebize said she anticipates around 40 people there to support her - a mix of friends and family.
"I'm so so so excited," Tournebize said. "Playing in Paris, it's gonna be so much fun ... I'm just really excited to go back, see my family too, and just have my people be able to actually see me in person because it's been a while."
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"I think it can it can be good for younger girls," Tournebize said of the event. "With social media, we can see games but it's a good opportunity to see in real time and real life. Just see how fast the game is, and two good NCAA team competing."
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Tournebize's mother Isabelle Fijalkowski, a 6-foot-5 center from Clermont-Ferrand, France, gave her a blueprint for playing in the US, as she spent one season at Colorado in 1994-95.
She carried Colorado to an undefeated conference record, a Big Eight Tournament championship and an Elite Eight appearance.
Then in 1997, she became the first Frenchwoman selected in the WNBA draft.
She spent two seasons in the WNBA before returning to France. She finished her career as a two-time EuroLeague champion and five-time French League champion.
In June, she was one of eight inducted in the 2026 Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
"It's an opportunity for people in France to know more about women's sports and college basketball," Fijalkowski said of the game. "NCAA basketball is so enjoyable to watch I'm sure Parisians will love it."
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There were 14 French players on WNBA rosters this season, including three in the WNBA Finals.
"We have good representation of France on a lot of WNBA teams, even college basketball, so that's great," Tournebize said. "It's very helpful and good for when they get back to French team that they experience the actual high level American basketball ... When the French players that played EuroLeague instead get to the W, they do well. So that means European basketball is also elite and very tough."
Fijalkowski has been coaching in France since she stopped playing and is the president of The Club des Internationaux de Basketball, which brings together current and former players from the French national teams.
But long before Staley coached her daughter, Fijalkowski played against Staley at the 1994 Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia.
"I follow Dawn back in France, and she's so inspiring, for coaches even, like me," Fijalkowski said. "You feel the leadership. When she was on the court, also really inspiring, a leader … this type of behavior we don't see enough in France."
Staley played in France for Tarbes Gespe Bigorre between college and getting drafted into the WNBA in 1999. She won three gold medals with the United States as a player from 1996-2004 before starting her coaching college career in 2008. She won another gold as the U.S. team's coach in 2020.
"She has an attitude from the woman's point of view that is very inspiring," Fijalkowski said. "That you don't have to coach as a man to be successful. You can still be competitive, have high dreams and she represents that because she's not doing things for herself, she's doing for women's basketball ... She has an impact that I really respect, and I wish back in France someday we have this kind of leadership, and by having that, I think more women will coach."
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Alicia Tournebize shares what South Carolina game at home in France means to her | Exclusive