Ta'Lon Cooper leaves South Carolina with zero regrets
When Ta’Lon Cooper decided to come back home to South Carolina, he had one goal in mind. He wanted to go back to March Madness one more time.
Cooper had played in the NCAA Tournament once before when he was at Morehead State. But it wasn’t the authentic experience like most others had. He went to the Big Dance in 2021, which was in the heat of COVID-19, with limited fan capacity and many restrictions.
But in one short year at South Carolina, Cooper accomplished that mission. He helped the Gamecocks to a 26-8 season, which ended in a trip to the tournament, something they hadn’t done since 2017. He can now say he leaves Columbia with no regrets.
“Probably one of the best decisions I’ve made so far in my life,” Cooper said about coming to South Carolina. “And it couldn’t have ended any better way. I mean, came up short, but what a great season that we had.”
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After Thursday’s loss in the first round to Oregon, Cooper’s college career is officially over. It’s been a long, wild journey with stops at three different schools, including South Carolina. He played in 159 games, starting 116 of them, while averaging 8.8 points on 42.5 percent shooting.
As a Gamecock, he had one of his best seasons, statistically speaking. The fifth-year guard put up 9.7 points per game on a career-best 47.5 percent shooting. He also shot 45.3 percent from three-point range, more than six percent better than what he shot for his entire career.
It’s not about the numbers for Cooper, though. Sure, it’s nice to have been a good, reliable player throughout the course of his career. But the impact he will leave on the younger guys is what matters to him.
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“Just being a leader,” Cooper said on how he wants to be remembered. “Being a guy that come in every day…communicating with the young guys and just helping them learn how to win games and to keep them winning games.”
While he’ll be onto the next phase of his life, Cooper believes in what head coach Lamont Paris is building. He knows he can accomplish a lot after this season.
“I’m extremely confident in what he’s going to do a couple years from now or however long he’s here,” Cooper said. “What I’ve learned from him is just to be confident in my game. He’s one of the few coaches that just told me to be me. Go out there and play, no handcuffs, just play defense and play ball.”
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As for the players, he has just as much confidence in their abilities to keep this train rolling. Even though he won’t be able to suit up for the Gamecocks again, you can be sure he’ll be around one way or another.
“I mean, if they don’t (have confidence), they’re going to hear from me next year. So I hope they keep it up,” But I’ve got a lot of confidence in these guys and the coaching staff. It’s a great group of guys, so they’ll be great next year.”
