South Carolina women's basketball: What's in a name? The stories behind the Gamecocks' nicknames

Most Gamecock fans know who Big Shot Breezy and Tournament Tessa are. Those nicknames have become well-known. But what do South Carolina’s players call each other, and what are the stories behind those nicknames?

A few players don’t really have nicknames. Some have nicknames they don’t like (a couple tried to adopt new nicknames on the spot). Many have different nicknames back home. And still others have embarrassing nicknames they refused to share.

Asking the Daycare a fun question gave them a chance to be silly, and I’m pretty sure a couple of players were pulling my leg with their answers.

Te-Hina Paopao
Gamecock nickname: Pao
Friends and Family nickname: Big T

Paopao said she doesn’t have a “cool” nickname, but her family has a cute name for her.

“They call me T or Big T, because I have a niece named after me, so they call her Baby T,” she said.

Maddy McDaniel
Gamecock nickname: Mouse
Friends and Family nickname: Maddy-Mouse

Dawn Staley said she calls McDaniel “Mouse” because she’s quiet, but it started before that.

“My mom has always called me Maddy-Mouse since I was younger,” she said. “And then it just stuck when I got here, especially because I’m quiet, I’m small. When Coach started calling me that, it started sticking with the FAMs, and then my teammates started calling me that. It’s been going ever since.”

McDaniel also liked my idea for FAMs to start wearing mouse ears and forming the Maddy Mouse Club.

Tessa Johnson
Gamecock nickname: Tournament Tessa
Friends and Family nickname: (Didn’t want to share)

Johnson said her family has “a bunch of nicknames” that she didn’t want to share. Her teammates mostly call her variations of “Tessa,” but she and Bree Hall call each other “Tessalini” and “Breezalini.”

“Coach calls me sometimes ‘Threesa’ if I’m hitting, or Tessa Messa because she thinks she’s funny,” Johnson said.

What about Tournament Tessa? It turns out Johnson has a bit of a love-hate relationship with that nickname.

“I would like me to play like Tournament Tessa stinking every single game. And I need to be more consistent throughout the season. If I was consistent throughout the season and also played well in the tournament, then I would like Tournament Tessa,” she said. 

I asked if she liked the nickname.

“On my end, the fact that I wasn’t playing the greatest throughout the season, no,” Johnson said. “But if I was playing consistent, like Tournament Tessa throughout the season, and then added on in the tournament, then yes.”

Joyce Edwards
Gamecock nickname: Crash Out Joyce
Friends and Family nickname: none

This one wouldn’t have made it out of the locker room if Sakima Walker hadn’t spilled the beans. Paopao confirmed, “Everyone thinks she’s a crash out.”

“They do call me a Crash Out,” Edwards confirmed. “In practice, I am a little crazy. I do put a bunch of extra effort in. I guess you can essentially say I crash out. In the game, I feel I’m much more calm, much more even-keeled, but I can definitely see that.”

Not being hip to teenage slang, I had to ask what “crash out” meant.

“It’s just I go hard, I go crazy,” Edwards said. “Literally that’s what it means. I do it in games sometimes when you see me dive for balls or hype up my teammates like I did Maryam in the Arkansas game. You could really see it when she scored that one bucket. It’s just things like that. I get really excited for my teammates. I’m really excited when I have an opportunity to show my effort. So, things like that – that’s why my name is Crash Out.”

MiLaysia Fulwiley
Gamecock nickname: Showtime, Lay, or Butter
Friends and Family nickname: Lay wit da Butter

Fulwiley’s nicknames are well known – her player edition shoe has a butter theme. The nickname came from a group of friends in high school, who said her skills were as smooth as butter.

“Oh, yeah, it was like a little group in high school,” she said. “I kind of broke apart a little bit, but it’s a few of us that are still in the group. I just like the ending, really, the ‘with the butter’ part.”

Adhel Tac
Gamecock nickname: Dehli
Friends and Family nickname: Dehli

Tac’s nickname isn’t super creative, but it fits her personality and she has had it for years.

“My friends did in high school, and it just stuck,” she said. “I love it. Yeah, I do. Everybody calls me Dehli, Coach, everybody around here. I think it really fits. When they figured it out, they started losing it. They love it too.”

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Sania Feagin
Gamecock nickname: Feagin
Friends and Family nickname: none

SInce her freshman season, everyone has called her “Feagin” without thinking about it . But she actually doesn’t like the nickname.

“I would prefer Sania, but they call me Feagin, and I’m just used to it now,” she said. “ It was me, Saniya (Rivers), Eniya (Russell). It was a lot of “-nias” so they called me Feagin. And then Coach (Jolette) Law calls me Embiid. She said I play like him. She said she thinks my game reminds her of him.”

Chloe Kitts
Gamecock nickname: Big Chlo
Friends and Family nickname: none

Kitts doesn’t really have a nickname. She needed help to remember that some people call her Big Chlo.

“They call me Chloe. I don’t really have a nickname,” she said, then she sought help. “Maryam – I don’t have a nickname. (“No, you don’t have a nickname,” Dauda confirmed.) It’s Chlo or Big Chlo.”

Bree Hall
Gamecock nickname: Breezy, Big Shot Breezy
Friends and Family nickname: Bree

Hall’s name is actually “Aubryanna,” but it is mostly her bad girl name. To everyone else, she’s Bree or Breezy.

“Only certain friends call me Aubreyanna, or like (coach) Mary (Worely) calls me Aubryanna,” she said. “But not really because it is kind of a longer name to say on the court. My mom, when I’m in trouble, she’ll call me Aubryanna.”

Hall introduces herself as “Bree,” but when she got to South Carolina, the Gamecocks already had Brea Beal on the team, so something had to change. In the words of Dawn Staley, “We call her Breezy because we already have a Brea.”

“Breezy is my teammates, my coaches, and my close friends,” Hall said. “My friends at home don’t call me Breezy. It’s a southern thing.”

Hall’s knack for clutch baskets has expanded hee nicknames to include Big Shot Breezy.

Raven Johnson
Gamecock nickname: Black Magic
Friends and Family nickname: Hollywood

Johnson wanted to know what nicknames I had gotten from everyone else, which makes me suspicious that she made all of her answers up on the spot. But here’s what she said – Hollywood is her hometown nickname, but Black Magic is her new moniker. 

“So I put Hollywood and Black Magic together, but I’d rather go by Black Magic. It’s a long story,” she said. “A lot of people call me (Hollywood), but I’m telling people my new name is Black Magic.”

We decided she has regional nicknames: Black Magic in South Carolina and Hollywood in Georgia.

Maryam Dauda
Gamecock nickname: None
Friends and Family nickname: None

Dauda seemed almost sad that she doesn’t have a nickname. 

“Unfortunately, I don’t,” she said.

Everyone just calls her “Maryam.”

Sakima Walker
Gamecock nickname: Kima
Friends and Family nickname: Kima

Walker brought her nickname with her, and it stuck. 

“It came with me,” she explained. “Mainly because people don’t know how to pronounce my name. I don’t like when people call me a name that’s not my name, so it’s just easier that way.”

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