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South Carolina women's basketball: Zia Cooke selected by Los Angeles

On3 imageby:Chris Wellbaum•04/10/23•

ChrisWellbaum

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Zia Cooke (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

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Zia Cooke was drafted by the Los Angeles Sparks with the 10th pick in the WNBA Draft.

Cooke becomes the 16th Gamecock selected in the WNBA Draft and the 12th of the Dawn Staley era. She was the third Gamecocks drafted Monday, following Aliyah Boston (first) and Laeticia Amihere (eighth).

A 5-9 shooting guard, Cooke used her senior season to expand her game. Cooke famously asked Dawn Staley at the beginning of her freshman season what she had to do to make the WNBA. Staley told her slow down, and the lessons finally took hold last season. She developed into a strong perimeter defender while adding point guard skills to her repertoire. 

“This is definitely a dream come true,” Cooke said. “This is something that I’ve prepared myself for since I was six years old. I would tell my younger self, I would actually congratulate her. I would tell her how proud I am of her for listening to her parents, number one, for not being a follower, being a leader and being very hardworking. I never quit on myself. I’m definitely very proud of myself.”

Cooke scored a career-high 31 points in a January game at Georgia. She had 24 points in the Final Four against Iowa.

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Cooke led the Gamecocks in scoring as a sophomore and a senior. She was named to the NCAA All-Tournament team all three times she appeared. Cooke was also a three-time honorable mention All-American and was named third-team All-American as a senior when she also won the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award. 

Cooke helped lead the Gamecocks to the consensus #1 ranking before the 2020 NCAA Tournament was canceled. She led the Gamecocks to three Final Fours and the wire-to-wire national championship in 2022. 

Cooke has always been fiercely proud of her hometown of Toledo, where the street in front of her high school (Rogers) is named after her. Now Cooke finds herself about as far away from Toledo as she could imagine.

“Toledo, Ohio, huge ‘thank you’ to you guys for supporting me. My city is behind me. They are behind me.,” she said. “I’m going to be so far away, but I know in my heart they’re going to be so close. So thank you to Toledo, Ohio. Thank you to Toledo Rogers for leading the way for me and just sticking behind me. It’s not over with, Toledo. We’re still in it. So let’s continue to do what we do.”

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The Sparks are embarking on a rebuild and brought in Curt Miller as coach. They also traded for Dearica Hamby, but have needed better guard play for the last few seasons. Cooke fills that need.

“I got a chance to talk to the staff, and I fell in love with their staff at first sight,” Cooke said. “Head coach is amazing. Coaching staff is amazing. So I can’t wait to get a chance to go out there. They got some good vets there that I know are going to put me under their wing. I’m ready to learn. I’m ready to win and just do whatever I can do to help the team succeed and do what we can do.”

The WNBA preseason starts on May 5, and the regular season starts on May 19. Los Angeles opens May 19 against Phoenix in a nationally televised game.

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