South Carolina with long list of players on WNBA opening day rosters
South Carolina women’s basketball fans are no strangers to the WNBA. The Gamecocks routinely put players in a position to play at the highest level of the sport. With the W tipping off the 2025 season on Friday, there are nine USC products on final rosters, meaning roughly 6% of the league played for head coach Dawn Staley in Columbia.
As things stand, those nine players are A’ja Wilson (Las Vegas Aces), Tiffany Mitchell (Las Vegas Aces), Aliyah Boston (Indiana Fever), Allisha Gray (Atlanta Dream), Te-Hina Paopao (Atlanta Dream), Ty Harris (Dallas Wings), Zia Cooke (Seattle Storm), Kamilla Cardoso (Chicago Sky), and Sania Feagin (Los Angeles Sparks). Paopao and Feagin are rookies who were taken in the second round of this year’s WNBA Draft.
As is the business reality of professional sports, several teams cut former Gamecocks during training camp. The Golden State Valkyries let go of Laeticia Amihere, the Dallas Wings waived Mikiah Herbert Harrigan, and the Indiana Fever didn’t have room to sign the newly drafted Bree Hall. Several teams released other South Carolina alums earlier this offseason.
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Wilson, Gray, and Boston were WNBA All-Stars in 2024. Cardoso also made the WNBA All-Rookie team last season. Harris and Cooke will play for new teams this season following offseason trades (Harris) and a free agent contract (Cooke). First-year players Paopao and Feagin will look to establish consistent roles with their teams and compete to extend South Carolina’s streak of having alums on the WNBA All-Rookie team to three years in a row.
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Four former Gamecocks will play on Friday night. Gray, Paopao, and the Dream will face the Washington Mystics at 7:30 p.m. Harris and the Wings also will play at 7:30 p.m. against the Minnesota Lynx. Then, in the nightcap, Feagin and the Sparks will face off against the Golden State Valkyries at 10:00 p.m. All three games will broadcast on Ion.
Wilson, Mitchell, and the Aces will open their season on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. Then, at 3:00 p.m., Boston and the Fever will match up with Cardoso and the Sky. Both games will broadcast on ABC and stream on ESPN+ and Disney+. The 10:00 p.m. game between Cooke’s Storm and the Phoenix Mercury will not be on television but can be accessed on WNBA League Pass.
