South Carolina women's basketball will retire "Firstborn" Tiffany Mitchell's jersey on Sunday

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Tiffany Mitchell, the first great Gamecock of the Dawn Staley Era, will have her jersey retired by South Carolina on Sunday.

Mitchell was a three-time All-American and two-time SEC Player of the Year (and would have been the first three-time Player of the Year if A’ja Wilson hadn’t stolen it during Mitchell’s senior season).

“I call her my firstborn here in South Carolina because she committed to us probably February of her junior year,” Dawn Staley said. “Very early, not knowing what we would be like. The process was very short for her because she knew where she wanted to be. I always remember that, and then her leading us. She was probably my first gym rat, just obsessive, in the gym all the time. Straight A student, and she probably got her work done because she wanted to get in the gym. She took us to higher heights.” 

Mitchell may have been Staley’s first great player in Columbia, but she mostly fit the mold of those early Gamecock teams. She was only ranked 46th in the country as a recruit, and at 5-9 didn’t have prototypical size.

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But the Charlotte native grew up watching Staley play for the hometown Sting, and when Staley became the coach at South Carolina, Mitchell knew she wanted to play for her childhood idol.

“That’s the reason why I committed here. It’s because it always has felt like home, felt like a family,” Mitchell said. “I also knew she cared about me more than just the basketball player. So if I never even went to WNBA, I knew that she would be somebody in my corner for the rest of my life. Just you know, trusting her when I was 16 years old and committing in 10th grade seemed to turn out pretty well for me.”

But Mitchell was a competitor and a “gym rat,” and worked her way into being an All-American.

“I feel like I’m just a person that did it the hard way,” Mitchell said. “I love the grind. The little things to me meant a lot, and I think that’s kind of the player that I was. I played hard, left it all out there, might have been the best skill-wise.”

Mitchell is the fourth women’s basketball player to have her jersey retired at South Carolina, but the first since Shannon Johnson in 2010. She is the first player from the Dawn Staley Era, which is the Gamecocks’ golden era, to have her jersey retired, but there will certainly be more to follow.

“Literally, I’ve never thought about this happening,” Mitchell said. “It was never like you know when I go to South Carolina, I want to go there and it makes sure that my journey is retired. I’m gonna be one of those people that makes sure that happens. I kind of just took it for what it was. I always wanted to be great, of course, and be a professional. I knew the work that it took to get to that point.”

Mitchell finished her career as the most decorated player in program history. She was first in career games and fifth in career scoring and steals. A lot of Mitchell’s records have been surpassed, and you can no longer call her the program’s most decorated player, but she laid the groundwork for the players that followed.

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“Just seeing where South Carolina is now and knowing that I was in the stands when there was nobody here and seeing where it is now is just crazy to me,” Mitchell said. “Khadijah (Sessions) and I were over there catching up. What it is and what it was, I’m just really happy that Coach Staley has been able to turn this program around, to get people in here, and now it’s a powerhouse. We kind of laid it down brick by brick, went through the trenches for them to enjoy all the perks of it, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Mitchell is likely the first of many jersey retirements for the Gamecocks. South Carolina has a mandatory five-year waiting period, but A’ja Wilson is now eligible, and the freshies will be eligible in a few more years.

Once Mitchell’s jersey is raised to the rafters, there is one other issue that must be addressed. Mitchell’s #25 is currently in use by Raven Johnson. Staley told Johnson she is free to continue wearing it this season, and then in the offseason they’ll address it (retiring a jersey does not preclude players from wearing the number). In the meantime, Mitchell had a message for Johnson.

“I said, look, if you’re going to wear the 25, you’re gonna have to wear it with some pride and know who was wearing it before you,” Mitchell said.

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