From vulnerable to unstoppable: Why Te-Hina Paopao is South Carolina's missing piece

Te-Hina Paopao has driven South Carolina women’s basketball to an undefeated season and the brink of another Final Four, but the senior almost didn’t end up in Columbia.

As she entered the transfer portal in the spring of 2023 and searched for a new home following her third season at Oregon, TCU seemed a logical choice for the 5-foot-9 point guard. She would have reunited with first-year Horned Frogs coach Mark Campbell, who had recruited her to Eugene during his stint as Oregon’s associate head coach.

“I originally was gonna go to TCU,” Paopao told ESPN.

One phone call from coach Dawn Staley, and an ensuing visit to Columbia, changed everything — not just for Paopao but also for the Gamecocks.

Top-ranked and top-seeded South Carolina is 34-0, has a new look and is arguably better than ever. Through it all, Paopao has been a bastion of veteran leadership, elevating the Gamecocks’ offense to another level and hitting clutch shots in big moments.

The transfer is a major reason South Carolina has emerged as one of the top 3-point-shooting teams in the country — a far cry from the Gamecocks’ 4-for-20 performance beyond the arc in the loss to Iowa in the 2023 national semifinals — making her the missing piece that might take the Gamecocks from vulnerable to unstoppable.

As Staley’s squad chases the program’s third national championship — a quest that resumes Friday (5 p.m. ET, ESPN) in the women’s NCAA tournament when No. 1 seed South Carolina faces 4-seed Indiana in the Sweet 16 in Albany — the best could be yet to come for Paopao. And after announcing earlier this month that she’s returning next season for her final year of eligibility, she can help South Carolina remain the juggernaut that hasn’t lost in nearly a year.

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PAOPAO WAS A three-year starter and two-time all-Pac-12 first-team selection at Oregon when she decided it was time for a change, looking for a program that would challenge her, and one where she could win. She received a phone call from Staley. “We had a great conversation,” Paopao said, “and then the rest is history.”

Paopao was attracted to Staley’s emphasis on discipline and how the coach requires her players to play at a high standard — which Paopao believes separates South Carolina from other programs.

“Just being able to hear that voice and hear that, ‘Hey, you need to be disciplined,’ ‘Hey, you need to do this and you need to do that in order for us to win,’ then people are gonna listen, and she gets her players to listen,” Paopao said. “I thought that was a neat thing to have.”

But early summer workouts in Columbia weren’t up to that level. Players weren’t locked in, Paopao said.

“They really weren’t in a good place,” Staley told ESPN College GameDay in February. “We lacked leadership. We lacked a lot of things. We lacked conditioning. We lacked discipline. But once you start forming your habits, they picked up on them fairly quickly.” Staley said she even pondered early retirement.

Once games started, the Gamecocks took off. South Carolina dropped a 100-71 beatdown on Notre Dame in Paris on opening day. A week later, the Gamecocks rose to No. 1 in The Associated Press rankings — a spot they haven’t relinquished.

Since then, the Gamecocks’ chemistry has only gotten better, as has their commitment to the team’s goal. With so many contributors, no one player is the star, but they’ve said that’s just how they want it.

“To be honest, I didn’t expect us to be this good,” Paopao said, laughing. “That was one of the most shocking things is how good we are now. … We just play free. We just play with no pressure, and we just love to play with each other.”

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SOUTH CAROLINA’S UNDEFEATED run is even more impressive considering who the Gamecocks lost. After graduating their historically dominant “Freshies” class, headlined by 2023 No. 1 WNBA draft pick Aliyah Boston, and four other starters, the Gamecocks are leaning mostly on juniors, sophomores and even freshmen. Paopao and starting center Kamilla Cardoso are the only seniors in the rotation. Juniors and sophomores such as Bree Hall, Raven Johnson and Chloe Kitts were thrust into larger roles, while Paopao and the freshmen had to adjust to an entirely new program.

Still, Paopao had more experience playing college basketball than most of her teammates (even if she had played in just one NCAA tournament game entering this season).

“[I] just [came] in with the mindset of, ‘Hey, you’re gonna lead, a lot of people are gonna look up to you because of your experience,'” Paopao said. “I knew that coming in, and they made it a smooth transition since day one.”

Staley has pushed her to use her voice more, but Paopao has also led through action, particularly when games have been on the line. Against the likes of UNC and Utah in nonconference play, she made momentum-shifting shots in close games, all the more important as the team worked through early-season kinks. When Paopao sat the Nov. 20 South Dakota State game with an ankle injury, the Gamecocks went 0-for-12 on 3-pointers.

“She has a sense of calm to where she’s been in every basketball situation,” Staley lamented afterward. “I know she would have just been a person out there that would have gotten us together.”

That example has trickled down to her younger teammates.

“The best thing I’ve taken from her is just how to stay poised,” star freshman MiLaysia Fulwiley, the SEC tournament MVP, told ESPN. “I feel like she’s always so calm, so poised. It’s something that every player on the college level needs to have. I feel like when I came in, I didn’t really understand, but she’s so experienced, it wasn’t very hard for me to catch on and just follow her lead.”

Added fellow guard Johnson, a redshirt sophomore: “She’s a leader on and off the court, and she’s experienced. There’s no better way than to learn from her.”

Paopao’s 3.8 assists per game ranks second on the team, her 11.2 PPG third and her 27.5 minutes per game second (behind only Johnson). Her 47.6 3-point shooting percentage is No. 1 in the nation and her career best, up from 42.4% as a junior.

With Paopao, Hall, Fulwiley and Tessa Johnson all shooting above 35% from 3, opponents face the daunting task of picking whether to prioritize defending the interior, where Cardoso, Kitts and Ashlyn Watkins can go off, or the 3-point arc. Images of Iowa choosing not to guard the perimeter in last year’s national semifinal went viral, but such a scheme would likely spell trouble going up against Paopao & Co. this year.

Staley, who was an All-American point guard and played in three Final Fours, has also enhanced Paopao’s passing ability and understanding of how to make the right reads, the senior said, while helping her become a better defender.

“I think she’s just very comfortable in her skin and giving us who she is,” Staley said at a news conference ahead of South Carolina’s second-round victory over North Carolina. “Over time she’s really just peeled down her layers and she’s given us all of her in a short period of time. She’s who she is. There’s no changing. So I like the fact that she’s given us the depth of who she is, and that takes a long time.”

Paopao didn’t experience South Carolina’s loss to Iowa in the Final Four last year, but she understands the imprint the defeat left.

“We remember last year’s loss and how much that felt within this program,” Paopao said, “and I know that as a team, we don’t want to feel like that ever again.”

Fortunately for the Gamecocks, Paopao might be the key ingredient to ensuring they fulfill that goal.

“I’m just really gonna go in this tournament, be who I am and just help my team keep winning and potentially win the championship,” she said.

ESPN’s Katie Barnes contributed to this report.