Freshman South Carolina women’s basketball player enters transfer portal
One of the South Carolina women’s basketball team’s Class of 2022 members is leaving the program.
Former McDonald’s All-American Talaysia Cooper has entered the transfer portal after her freshman season, a USC spokesperson confirmed to The State on Wednesday. The news was first reported by WBB Blog.
Cooper is the first USC player to enter the transfer portal this offseason and the most prominent since fellow five-star signee Saniya Rivers left USC for North Carolina State last offseason.
Cooper, a 6-foot point guard, was ranked No. 4 at her position and the No. 18 overall prospect in the class of 2022, according to espnW. That website also classified her as a five-star recruit coming out of East Clarendon High School in Turbeville, South Carolina.
But she only appeared in 24 of a possible 37 games for last year’s South Carolina team, which went 36-1 and reached the Final Four. Cooper played 8 per minutes per game, the fewest of any guard on USC’s roster, while averaging 2.9 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game.
Cooper flashed against Texas A&M on Dec. 29 with a career-high 15 points. Throughout the season, Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley praised Cooper’s ability to learn new aspects of the game and complimented how she’d always ask questions of her older teammates.
“Keep going,” Cooper said of the advice she got. “It’s a process.”
Cooper was a decorated prospect coming out of East Clarendon. She helped the Wolverines to a state championship and was the S.C. Gatorade Player of the Year in 2021.
Cooper scored more than 3,000 points in her high school career and was part of a talented recruiting class that included in-state product Ashlyn Watkins and Chloe Kitts, who reclassified up from 2023 to enroll early.
USC is no stranger to transfer portal attrition under looser NCAA rules that allow every player to transfer once without penalty and become immediately eligible at their new school. Rivers (N.C. State) was one of four players who left USC’s national championship team after the 2021-22 season.
Destiny Littleton (Southern Cal), Eniya Russell (Kentucky) and Elysa Wesolek (North Florida) also transferred out last cycle.
Cooper is the eighth player to leave from South Carolina’s 2022-23 roster but the first to leave via the transfer portal.
USC had five players selected in the 2023 WNBA Draft: forward Aliyah Boston, forward Laeticia Amihere, guard Zia Cooke, guard Brea Beal and forward Victaria Saxton. Guard Kierra Fletcher also exhausted her eligibility while guard Olivia Thompson declined to use her fifth “COVID” year.
South Carolina will now return six players from last year’s roster — most notably, guard Raven Johnson, center Kamilla Cardoso and wing Bree Hall — and bring in five new players.
High school recruits MiLaysia Fulwiley, Tessa Johnson and Sahnya Jah and transfer recruits Te-Hina Paopao (Oregon) and Sakima Walker (Northwest Florida State College) enrolled at USC earlier this month.
With Cooper’s departure, South Carolina’s currently sitting at 11 scholarship players — four below the NCAA maximum for a Division I women’s basketball team (15).
—The State’s Chapel Fowler contributed to this story
South Carolina roster movement
A look at the Gamecocks’ roster with the news that Talaysia Cooper is in the transfer portal.
▪ GONE (8): Aliyah Boston, Zia Cooke, Brea Beal, Victaria Saxton, Laeticia Amihere, Olivia Thompson, Kierra Fletcher, Talaysia Cooper
▪ RETURNING (6): Bree Hall, Kamilla Cardoso, Raven Johnson, Ashlyn Watkins, Chloe Kitts, Sania Feagin
▪ TRANSFER ADDITIONS (2): Te-Hina Paopao, Sakima Walker
▪ FRESHMAN ADDITIONS (3): MiLaysia Fulwiley, Sahnya Jah, Tessa Johnson
This story was originally published June 28, 2023 at 7:06 PM.
