South Carolina women’s basketball‘s fifth year guard Te-Hina Paopao was one of 16 athletes invited to the 2025 WNBA draft but despite the honor, she will not attend.
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.
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“I’ll be having the draft party at home just because I want my family to be there,” Paopao said in open locker room on Sunday after the 82-59 loss to UConn in the national championship on April 6. “I want to start with the people that have been there for the journey, for the ride. I’m just really excited for my next journey and just super proud.”
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.
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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.
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Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Why South Carolina’s Te-Hina Paopao didn’t accept WNBA draft invitation
