How Te-Hina Paopao’s simple request to ‘believe’ is motivating South Carolina
Believe.
It’s a short, two-syllable word that means “to consider to be true.”
It’s also been a key word in Te-Hina Paopao’s vocabulary over the last week.
South Carolina’s veteran guard was searching for a way to motivate her teammates after close NCAA Tournament wins in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight and was inspired by a conversation with her best friend.
“He was just telling me, ‘You’ve just gotta tell your team to believe,’ ” Paopao said on Saturday. “Believe that you guys can win. Believe that shots are going in. Believe in yourselves. Believe in the coaching staff and just believe that you guys are gonna win it all. We’re here, why not believe that you can win it all?
”I’m just super proud of (my team) for leaning on that and just being able to trust, and trust in me and trust in belief.”
Paopao repeated the word “believe” over and over again in the week leading into South Carolina’s Final Four meeting with Texas.
That repetition rubbed off on her teammates.
“The way that she stepped up in her leadership role, just for this team, was incredible,” Bree Hall told reporters on Friday. “All practice she was screaming, ‘I believe,’ and it got me saying it. I’m like, ‘I believe, I believe.’ She really poured into us. ... She had me with the all-time confidence high.”
That belief helped South Carolina beat Texas 74-57 on Friday night, sending the Gamecocks to the NCAA national championship game. South Carolina will play UConn on Sunday (3 p.m., ABC) for a shot at its fourth national title.
“Every time we shoot a shot we believe,” MiLaysia Fulwiley said. “We believe that it’s going in. We believe that we’re going to win this game. We believe that we’re going to stop (Texas’) bigs. And we did, honestly. Pao, she’s a very godly person, so when she comes up with those motivational speeches or motivational words, we just listen to it, and we just follow her lead.”
Seeing her teammates take her word in stride and believe in themselves only fuels Paopao’s belief in her own self, she said. That was on full display in the Final Four.
Paopao had one of her better games in the last month against Texas. She finished with 14 points — the most she’s scored since mid-February — with two steals, three rebounds and an assist.
“It’s a team sport, and when your team buys into that concept, it makes me feel better,” Paopao said. “It gives me more confidence that they believe in me and I believe in them.”
There’s no doubting Paopao’s skills on the offensive end. She led the country last year in 3-point percentage (46.8%) and was named an All-American. This year her production has dipped slightly, so her field-goal percentage of 83.3% against Texas was a welcome sight for coach Dawn Staley.
“Seeing Pao put the ball in the hole, it makes us want to put the ball in the hole,” Fulwiley said. “... When she plays like that, it turns us up on a whole different level. She’s the best shooter in the world, in my opinion.”
Though her offense may have lacked at times this year, Paopao’s defensive production has increased. She’s averaging 1.1 steals per game, her highest mark since arriving in Columbia, and was inducted into Bree Hall and Raven Johnson’s premier defensive group — the “seatbelt gang” — earlier in March Madness after a four-block and two-steal performance against Indiana.
“Obviously she can score the ball. But what most impresses me, along with her leadership skills and her ability to calm us, is her defense,” Staley said. “Her defense has come a long way. Like, she knows it’s super important for her to play on that side of the ball, especially where she’s going to be playing for the next few years, which is the WNBA.”
Friday’s showing was a well-timed and fully-rounded performance for Paopao, who said she feels like her play is picking up at the perfect time.
“I’m really happy that I’m peaking at the right time and I’m hitting my stride at the right time,” Paopao said on Saturday. “(Sunday) is gonna be my last-ever college game, and I gotta take advantage of that and capitalize that and do everything that I can to help my team win.”
A win Sunday would give South Carolina its fourth national title in program history. It would also make the Gamecocks the first team to win back-to-back championships since UConn won four in a row from 2013 to 2016.
That sort of opportunity is what drew Paopao to South Carolina in the first place. And while Vegas may have the Gamecocks as underdogs, that’s never stopped a team from winning a national title before.
After all, all the Gamecocks have to do is believe.
“This is why I came back. The goal was to go back-to-back,” Paopao said. “...You gotta believe that our defense is gonna come through tomorrow. We gotta believe that our offense is gonna come through, and believe that we can win the whole thing.”
This story was originally published April 5, 2025 at 7:00 PM.
