South Carolina women's basketball: Breaking down the loss of Talaysia Cooper
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Rising sophomore guard Talaysia Cooper entered the transfer portal Wednesday. Cooper’s departure leaves the Gamecocks with 11 players for the upcoming season.
Cooper was the 18th-ranked player in the 2022 class. She starred at East Clarendon in Turbeville, SC, and was a McDonald’s All-American and Gatorade state player of the year. Cooper appeared in 24 games last season, mostly in blowouts. She averaged 2.9 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 8.4 minutes.
Cooper is a talented scorer that can do a little bit of everything – pass, rebound, defend – and plays with lots of energy. Cooper has point guard instincts with the size (6-0) to play off the ball. However, there isn’t any specific area where she excels, and that makes it hard to break into South Carolina’s lineup.
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Last season was essentially a redshirt season for Cooper; a chance to learn the point guard role from the sidelines. Officially, Cooper only committed 18 turnovers, but she had a tendency to over-dribble and get into trouble. Opponents frequently used a full-court press when Cooper was in the game and she didn’t always make good decisions. Cooper also shot just 5-21 from three and 38% on free throws.
By the Final Four, Cooper told me she felt comfortable enough with the responsibilities that she could have run the team if needed.
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Cooper needs to improve her shooting, both from long range and the foul line. Shooting just 38% from the line makes Cooper a liability and hard to play in tight games. She also needs to improve her decision-making against pressure.
Cooper is in many ways an example of the give-and-take of the transfer portal. South Carolina brought in transfer Te-Hina Paopao, a combo guard and elite shooter who was a two-time first-team All-Pac 12. Paopao’s addition probably meant that instead of competing for a starting spot Cooper would have been the third point guard at best.
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It’s also a sign of how deep South Carolina is and how well the Gamecocks recruit. South Carolina now has five players listed as guards, and all were McDonald’s All-Americans and top 25 recruits. They are Raven Johnson (2), Paopao (11), Bree Hall (14), Malaysia Fulwiley (13), and Tessa Johnson (25).
Before committing to South Carolina, Cooper announced a top seven that included Duke, Florida State, Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Virginia Tech. Since then, coach Joni Taylor left Georgia for Texas A&M and the Aggies have been aggressively adding transfers.
