South Carolina basketball coach Dawn Staley announced Sunday night that “A birdie just flew in the nest.” For those that have followed Coach Staley’s Twitter account and Gamecock basketball recruiting, the message was clear: a player just committed to the University of South Carolina.
However, the identity of the commitment was not revealed. South Carolina basketball fans wondered how long they would have to wait to learn who would be joining their favorite team. As it turned out, the answer to that question was, “Not very long.”
On Monday night, the “birdie” revealed herself. Oregon transfer Te-Hina Paopao, a sharpshooting combo guard, will have two more years of eligibility to spend playing in Columbia. She was the 10th-ranked transfer of the 2023-2024 offseason according to 247Sports‘ transfer portal individual player rankings.
Paopao has primarily been used as a point guard during her career on the West Coast, but with Raven Johnson and incoming freshman Milaysia Fulwiley both playing the position, Paopao will see plenty of time off-ball, as well. Fortunately for the Gamecocks and Paopao, having a shooting guard with point guard skills is nothing new for the program as Zia Cooke fit that archetype during her four-year run in garnet and black.
Paopao will also bring some veteran leadership to a backcourt that she will share with the two younger players Johnson and Fulwiley. Hopefully, her shooting touch will rub off on her new team, as Paopao shot over 40% from deep last season, and the Gamecocks shot poorly from three for most of the season.
The Gamecocks still have four more scholarships available. The team had one open scholarship already, then two graduates moved on, and five more players made their way to the WNBA. With three incoming freshman and now one transfer addition, Dawn Staley will have the flexibility to add up to four more players from the portal if that is the route she wishes to go.
South Carolina is publicly heavily involved with two more transfers. DePaul defection Aneesah Morrow is a 6’1″ forward who averaged over 25 and 12 a season ago, and National Junior College Player of the Year Sakima Walker is 6’5″ and led her team to the junior college national title a few weeks ago.