South Carolina women’s basketball’s Te-Hina Paopao rejects WNBA drafts invitation. Reason being that….
Paopao, a 5-foot-9 guard who started the past two seasons, will wait and hope to hear her name called on April 14 (7:30 p.m., ESPN) but instead of watching from audience at The Shed at Hudson Yards in Manhattan, New York, she will watch from Oceanside, California, with her family.
Paopao is one of three athletes for coach Dawn Staley who are hoping to be drafted. Starting forward Sania Feagin was also invited and will be in attendance. Starting shooting guard Bree Hall did not receive an official invite to attend the draft.
Paopao transferred to South Carolina before the 2023-24 season after beginning her career at Oregon. She averaged 9.4 points and 2.8 assists this season, improving her steals per game from 0.8 to 1.1. Her assists led the team and her points per game ranked fourth on the team.
She scored a season-high 23 points against NC State on Nov. 10 and then shortly after, dropped 18 points in the loss to UCLA on Nov. 24.
In the Final Four win against Texas on April 4, she led the team with 14 points and in the title game loss to UConn on April 6, she finished with three.
Some draft projections during the week between the college season ending and the WNBA draft have shown Paopao going in the first round. If Paopao or Feagin go in the first round, it will be the third consecutive year Staley’s produced a first-round draft pick.
