South Carolina women's basketball: Who would be in the Gamecocks' all-time starting five?

Last week, we counted down the top 25 players of the last 25 years, but this week, we opened it up for all the current and former Gamecocks to pick the all-time starting five.

The goal is not to make an all-star team of the list of the five best players. This is supposed to be a team that could actually take the court and win basketball games, with positions from point guard to post.

My starting five is
PG – Te-Hina Paopao
SG – Karen Middleton
W – Sheila Foster 
F – A’ja Wilson
P – Aliyah Boston

Picking the frontcourt was easy. Foster, Wilson, and Boston are the three best players in program history, and by a wide margin. Foster is second in career scoring and rebounding, Wilson is first in scoring and blocks, and Boston is first in rebounds and second in blocks.

It’s going to be hard to score against those three, and even harder to get a rebound. But now I need some shooters to give them room to operate.

Middleton was a career 45% three-point shooter who holds the program record for made threes. Paopao led the nation in three-point shooting as a senior and has the second-best career percentage at South Carolina at 42%. 

Normally, I’d like a little more size in my backcourt for defensive purposes, but I trust Middleton and Paopao to funnel opponents into my shotblockers at the rim. Plus, we’re going to be scoring 100 points a game, so it’s okay to give up a basket or two.

I also took submissions on the brand new women’s basketball forum on GamecockCentral. For these, we changed the rules a little to make it more interesting: no A’ja Wilson, Aliyah Boston, or Sheila Foster. They are too obvious.

My revised starting five is:
PG – Tyahsa Harris
SG – Shannon Johnson
W – Jocelyn Penn
F – Mikiah Herbert Harrigan
P – Kamilla Cardoso

Cardoso is an easy pick. When you can take the best player from an undefeated national champion, you do it. Harris is also an easy choice. South Carolina’s career leader in assists, she knows how to feed the post (she set South Carolina’s single-season assist record by setting up A’ja Wilson) and keep a deep, talented team happy.

Johnson is South Carolina’s third-leading scorer, and the best available in this exercise, so she’s an easy choice to bring my scoring punch. She is also a career 38% three-point shooter, which helps space the floor for Cardoso.

Penn is South Carolina’s sixth all-time scoring leader (third after you exclude Foster, Wilson, and Boston) and career leader in steals by a wide margin. She’s a perfect fit to help shoulder the scoring load and create some easy baskets off turnovers. Penn doesn’t shoot threes, but I’ll take care of that next.

Picking a forward was tough. Katrina Anderson, Alaina Coates, and Denise Nanney were double-double machines, but I don’t need more scoring, and I don’t want to clog the lane for Cardoso. 

That’s why I picked Herbert Harrigan. She’s a solid rebounder and great shot-blocker (third in career blocks), but it’s her career 39% three-point shooting as a forward that will keep double-teams off of Cardoso and make my team impossible to guard.

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Now, we’ll look at some of the subscriber picks. (I’ve edited everyone’s explanations down to a few sentences.)

CockyGirl:
PG – Shannon Johnson
G – Tiffany Mitchell
G – Allisha Gray
F – Joyce Edwards
C – Kamilla Cardoso

“Going with my two hometown girls: Shannon Johnson of Hartsville (where I grew up) and Joyce Edwards of Camden (where I live now) because she’s going to be the next superstar that everyone talks about.”

Cockburn:
PG – Destanni Henderson
SG – Martha Parker
SF – Brantley Southers
PF- Aleighsa Welch
C – Kamilla Cardoso

During my college years, I watched Parker play many times – great scorer and effort player despite not being the most athletic. I was in high school at AC Flora when Southers was at Dreher and I saw her play in both gyms. She scored over 1,900 career points, and her jersey should be hanging in the rafters.

WeCocky:
PG – Ty Harris
SG – Allisha Gray
W – Joyce Edwards
F – Jocelyn Penn
P – Kamilla Cardoso

I would have loved to have seen what Penn would’ve accomplished playing on a Dawn Staley team.

Alndyoung:
PG – Destanni Henderson
SG – Te-Hina Paopao
W Allisha Gray
F – Kamilla Cardoso
P – Alaina Coates

(No description.)

SlickChick22:
PG – Te-Hina Paopao
SG – Allisha Gray
W – Joyce Edwards
F – Denise Nanny
P – Kamilla Cardoso

Denise Nanney from the 1970s held most of the records that Staley’s players are breaking, and is my friend. She would fit right in with Dawn’s players.

(SlickChick22 also cheated by putting the ineligible players on the bench. Nice try.)

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