South Carolina Basketball: Former Gamecock star gets new contract
By Kevin Miller
Alaina Coates was one of the best players on South Carolina basketball’s first national title team during the 2016-2017 season. The 6’4″ post player was a two-time All-SEC performer and averaged a double-double in both her junior and senior seasons. In the all-time record books for South Carolina basketball, Coates sits near the top in career rebounds and blocked shots (3rd in each stat) and is 12th all-time in points scored.
Coates and fellow forward A’Ja Wilson were among the most formidable front lines in women’s college basketball history, but Coates injured her ankle before the NCAA Tournament run and had to watch the national title from the bench. She was taken second in the 2017 WNBA Draft.
After injuries continued to derail her career, Coates bounced around a bit and even spent some time playing overseason. However, late last week, the Columbia native was back in the WNBA. The Atlanta Dream (who, coincidently just drafted fellow 6’4″ Gamecock forward Laeticia Amihere) signed Coates to a contract. She will join Amihere in the battle for playing time down low.
Over the course of her professional career, Coates averaged right around 3 points and 3 rebounds per game in injury-limited action. If Coates can stay healthy, she might be able to mirror her college success. For Dawn Staley’s teams, she averaged over 12 points per game and about 9.5 rebounds and over 1.5 blocks per game.
This will be Coates’ second stint with the Dream, having spent the end of the 2019 season in Atlanta. Her other professional stops were with the Chicago Sky (2018), Minnesota Lynx (2019), Washington Mystics (2020), and Indiana Fever (2022) in the WNBA.
Because of a different schedule than the WNBA, Coates also played overseas with Sopron Basket of the EuroLeague Women’s (2018), the Zhejiang Far East of the Women’s Chinese Basketball Association (2018-2019), Hatay Büyükşehir Belediyespor of the Turkish Women’s Basketball Super League (2020), Ramat Harsharon of the Israeli Female Basketball Premier League (2020-2021), Nesibe Aydın GSK of the Turkish Women’s Basketball Super League (2021-2022), and Galatasaray of the Turkish Women’s Basketball Super League (2022).