South Carolina women's basketball: MiLaysia Fulwiley is "different than all of them"

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Dawn Staley knows a thing or two about guards. 

She is in the Hall of Fame for her playing days as a point guard and is considered one of the best to ever play the position. A two-time college player of the year and six-time WNBA All-Star he captained the US Olympic team to three gold medals and was selected as the flag-bearer in Athens.

As a coach, Staley mentored guards like future WNBA players Tiffany Mitchell, Tyasha Harris, Destanni Henderson, Kaela Davis, and Zia Cooke. All except Mitchell won a national championship. She has to settle for being a two-time SEC player of the year and having her jersey retired later this year.

The list doesn’t even include all the great players Staley worked with as a coach for USA Basketball. She knows about guard play.

So when Staley says MiLaysia Fulwiley is a generational talent it gets everyone’s attention. 

Fulwiley is a familiar name to most Gamecock fans. She grew up in Columbia and attended W. J. Keenan High. From the time she first made varsity as a seventh-grader, she has been on everyone’s radar as the next great South Carolina player (almost literally – Staley offered her that summer).

Fulwiley was once among the top-ranked players in her class. For some reason (perhaps because ESPN listed her at the wrong position and four inches shorter than her actual height), Fulwiley dropped to 13th. Don’t tell Staley.

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From the moment she stepped on campus this summer, Fulwiley has turned heads. She has familiar attributes. Like the departed 2019 signing class, she started a group chat for her fellow newcomers called “Freshies” (Fulwiley admitted the name needs to be changed). Like A’ja Wilson, she has a big personality that makes her a natural leader and a desire to be coached. 

On paper, Fulwiley is similar to Cooke. They are about the same height, they were the subject of viral highlight videos in high school, and they are elite scorers who can shoot and tie opens in knots with their handle. Staley disagrees.

“She’s different,” Staley said. “She’s different than all of them. She’s different in that she can do things that the freshmen that came in before her, they just couldn’t do the things that she can do with the basketball. She defends as well.”

That doesn’t mean Fulwiley already has it all figured out. But remember, even A’ja Wilson only started one game as a freshman (and struggled mightily in that game).

“I’ll be happy when she gets to a point where she figures it all out,” Staley said. But I’m gonna be with her throughout the times in which we’re all looking like why did you do that? That’s part of the process of becoming great. You don’t just become great. You work greatness, you work at it. The people who are great had some struggles. And she’ll have that. But she’ll have it with us. She’ll believe in it throughout it all.”

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Staley isn’t the only one looking forward to seeing what Fulwiley can do. Word of her brilliance is starting to spread beyond the Palmetto State. The Athletic put Fulwiley third on its list of the top 20 freshmen this season, behind only Juju Watkins (Southern Cal) and Mikaylah Williams (LSU). 

The list’s author, Chantel Jennings, called Fulwiley a Swiss Army knife who could be a constant triple-double threat. Once Fulwiley figures it out, Jennings wrote, “Oh, boy. She’ll be a blast to watch.” That might not take long.

“She’s very, very coachable,” Staley said. “She wants to be great. And we want to be great. There’s struggle in greatness, and she’ll struggle this year at times. Then at times she’ll look like a fantastic freshman. She’s trusting the process, she trusts us as coaches. And that is half the battle, especially when you’re the hometown hero, and you’ve done some great things. And things that you’ve done on a high school level aren’t working here. You’ve gotta go in your bag. You’ve got to figure it out. She understands things. She plays off of her instincts, and sometimes that doesn’t work on this level. Sometimes it does. So we’ve got to get her playing sure basketball. That’s a process. We don’t expect her to be perfect. She’s gonna turn the ball over. She’s gonna take some ill-advised shots. She’s gonna woo us. She’s gonna give us everything she gave us as a high schooler, but as she progresses maybe we won’t we won’t see as many mistakes.”

Fulwiley probably won’t start given South Carolina’s loaded roster and the more experienced players in front of her. But she’ll have a chance to shine.

“We’re gonna let her play because that’s what we recruited her to do,” Staley continued. “We’re just gonna teach her along the way.”

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