Get To Know Who Are South Carolina’s ‘Freshies’ Entering 2023 WNBA Draft

The top recruitment class for South Carolina women’s basketball in 2019 included Aliyah Boston, Zia Cooke, Brea Beal, Laeticia Amihere, and Olivia Thompson, who started their respective careers. Now that they have played four seasons together and won the NCAA title, their focus is on the 2023 WNBA Draft, which will be held on Monday in New York.

Get To Know South Carolina’s ‘Freshies’ Entering 2023 WNBA Draft

The five women’s text-based group chat they called “The Freshies” during their first year at Columbia is still active today. The dominant group has contributed to South Carolina’s stunning 129-9 record, three Final Four trips, national championship in 2022, and many other illustrious achievements since their arrival in 2019.

Coach Dawn Staley recently praised her senior class for being low-maintenance and high-performing, stating that it will be very difficult to replace such a brilliant and cohesive group in the future.

“I hope there is another class that comes a close second [or] third to this class.” Staley said. “This class has been remarkable.”

Boston was the first of “The Freshies” to declare her intention to participate in the forthcoming WNBA Draft on April 1. The Indiana Fever presently hold the first overall pick this year, which is expected to go to the 6-foot-5 star forward.

This past season, Boston averaged 13.0 points, 9.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 2.0 blocks per game. Boston, a three-time unanimous first-team All-American and back-to-back Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, has won several SEC and national honours while playing for the Gamecocks. She has also broken over 20 individual programme records.

Her NIL value has been estimated in the range of $105,000-$115,000 annually — roughly the same as the average WNBA salary and significantly higher than the league’s minimum salary of $74,000. She has signed name-image-likeness deals with numerous significant businesses, including OrangeTheory, Bojangles, and Crocs among others.

This season, Gamecocks guard Cooke led the squad in scoring with 15.4 points per contest. Additionally, she recorded career-high percentages from the field (40.5%) and the free-throw line (79.2%).

This past season, Amihere averaged 7.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game while Beal, South Carolina’s defensive specialist, averaged 6.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.7 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks.

The 3-pointer Thompson shot with 30 seconds remaining in South Carolina’s victory against South Florida in the second round of the 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament is what made her most famous as a walk-on in 2018. The only member of “The Freshies” who hasn’t formally registered for the forthcoming draught is Thompson, the last of the group.

It will just be the second time in WNBA history that a school has generated four first-round choices in a single draft, joining UConn in 2002, if all four of “The Freshies” competing in this year’s draught are chosen in the first round.

‘The Freshies’ career stats

Minutes Points Rebounds Assists Blocks Steals
Aliyah Boston 3,751 1,942 1,493 265 330 141
Brea Beal 3,370 847 685 214 110 105
Laeticia Amihere 2,021 796 517 130 133 88
Zia Cooke 3,831 1,845 340 254 13 117
Olivia Thompson 312 83 19 10 1 4
Total 13,285 5,513 3,054 619 587 455

Draft predictions for “The Freshies”

ESPN predicts that, except Thompson, all four women will either make it out of the first round or into the early second round.

In their most recent mock draft, Boston is ranked first overall to the Indiana Fever, Beal is seventh overall to the Fever as well, Amihere is eighth overall to the Atlanta Dream, and Cooke is ranked thirteenth overall once again to the Fever.

Destanni Henderson, a South Carolina graduate who played for ‘The Freshies’ for three years, currently resides with the Fever. One South Carolina alumna from The Dream, Allisha Gray, performed from 2016 to 2017 before their time.

 

 

FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE- 

Draymond Green Indirectly Taunts Rudy Gobert After His Scuffle With Kyle Anderson