Gamecock alum Maryam Dauda takes next steps to keep basketball career going
Former South Carolina women’s basketball player Maryam Dauda recently had the chance to represent her home country on a big stage. For Dauda, it was the honor of a lifetime.
Dauda was a member of the Nigerian National Team that played in WNBA preseason games in April and May. It was the first steps in keeping her basketball playing days going.
The forward, who made trips to two national title games in her two seasons with the Gamecocks, got to play in a pair of games against some of the best women’s basketball players in the world.
“I can’t even put it into words,” Dauda told The State. “There’s so many Nigerian college players that most people don’t even know of, and being one of the select few that got invited to the camp, it was definitely exciting.
“... I’ve been wanting to do this for a while. It was just finding the opportunity doing college basketball, and finding time in my basketball schedule to be able to do this, and then finally getting an invite from the national team. I was very, very excited.”
The invite and training camp
A representative from the Nigerian team reached during this past season out to Lisa Boyer, USC’s longtime associate head coach, with an invitation to the team’s training camp. It didn’t take much to convince Dauda to accept.
“It was a pretty smooth process,” Dauda said. “...I reached back out to them. I told them I would be very much interested to come to the camp and obviously play against multiple WNBA teams, which is definitely an exciting process to start with, and an exciting opportunity.”
In order to play for a national team, you generally need some sort of familial connection to the country. Granted, the rules are slightly different based on the sport and competition level.
In Dauda’s case, she was able to play for the Nigerian team because she was born in Nigeria. Dauda moved to the United States when she was 12 and has lots of family members, including her biological parents, who live back in Nigeria.
“My parents were so excited,” Dauda said. “... Back home, the women’s team is such a huge deal and a lot of people respect them, look up to them and everything. And finally, me getting the opportunity to get an invite to a camp was just an amazing experience. So they were, they were excited for me and proud.”
Dauda met the Nigerian National Team in San Diego for a five-day training camp of sorts. There she learned how all the different players meshed their different playing styles together to form a cohesive unit in such a short period of time.
Most of the players on the team came from a European style of play, Dauda said. On the defensive side of the ball, she felt prepared thanks to her two years at South Carolina.
“It was definitely a different dynamic than playing in college,” Dauda said. “Different playing style, different terminology compared to what I was used to at South Carolina. But it was definitely a good experience, for sure, just to show me how different it is [and] how different organizations, different coaches and everything deal with … implementing stuff with their team that they’re coaching.”
Preseason games and seeing old teammates
The Nigerian National Team lost all three preseason games it played, but Dauda felt she still earned valuable experiences. She’s no stranger to playing big games on a big stage — she went to two national championships with South Carolina — so her nerves were limited when she matched up against pros.
“I was more excited to like being in the shoes and being given an opportunity to play against a WNBA team,” Dauda said. “I was just excited I was able to put on the Nigerian jersey and represent my country and everything.”
Dauda made appearances in two of those three preseason games. She missed the last game because she had to take an exam back at USC.
Dauda played six minutes and recorded a block in an 89-63 loss to the Los Angeles Sparks. She played four minutes in an 88-79 loss to the Minnesota Lynx.
In the matchup with the Sparks, Dauda got to reunite with two former South Carolina teammates in Ta’Niya Latson and Sania Feagin. There was a moment in the game where she ended up guarding Latson. Dauda joked it was weird guarding someone in a game she was teammates with less than a month earlier.
“It was so, so nice seeing Feagin and Ta’Niya. I haven’t seen Feagin in a while. It was so nice catching up with her, talking to her, and then Ta’Niya was just like, ‘Oh my gosh. Good to see you again.’ It was so exciting to see my Gamecock teammates and just catch up with them and pick their brains to see how training camp is going with them.”
What’s next for Maryam Dauda?
Dauda took a lot away from her brief time with the Nigerian National Team. Her biggest takeaway might’ve simply been the good times she had being surrounded by people with a similar background as her.
“I haven’t been around that many [Nigerian] people in a while, and it just brought back so many memories and everything,” Dauda said. “It was just exciting, just being able to wear that jersey and everything.”
Dauda graduated from USC with two degrees; a bachelor’s degree in services management (with a minor in economics) and a master’s degree in retail innovation that she finished up this semester.
While her future path hasn’t been set in stone yet, Dauda plans to stay in the basketball world. And if all else fails, Dawn Staley has said multiple times that she’d hire Dauda to her staff in a heartbeat.
“I’m planning on playing overseas somewhere and just testing the waters to see how my journey is going to keep going,” Dauda said. “I’m going to keep playing basketball, for sure.”
