Why Tyasha Harris still sees South Carolina women's basketball seniors as 'babies'

COLUMBIA — Before South Carolina women's basketball had Aliyah Boston and Zia Cooke, there was Tyasha Harris and Mikiah Herbert Harrigan.

Harris and Harrigan were the only seniors on the team when the highest-ranked recruiting class in program history enrolled in 2019. That class, which celebrates its senior day against Georgia in front of a sold-out crowd at Colonial Life Arena on Sunday (noon, ESPN2), included the No. 3, 4, 10 and 11-ranked prospects.

With plenty of basketball left to play in 2023, Boston, Cooke, Brea Beal, Laeticia Amihere and Olivia Thompson have already left an incomparable mark at South Carolina. They have the winningest record of any class during coach Dawn Staley's tenure, won two SEC regular season championships, two SEC tournament titles, and the 2022 NCAA championship.

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"Our 2019 class was unafraid to come in here and be super competitive," Staley said. "They didn't care who was here, didn't care that it looked like they would have to sit. They just wanted to win. They have incredible chemistry ... They respect each other. They hold each other accountable. They only want to win, and they're going to do that."

Harris remembers when the group arrived on campus surrounded by national attention. Their presence was felt immediately: Boston, Cooke and Beal became the only freshmen besides Harris to earn a place in the starting lineup under Staley. Even A'ja Wilson, who is immortalized with a statue outside the arena, started just once in her first year.

"I had in my mind, we can either be really good or really bad. We were so young, so it could have gone either way," Harris said. "The whole freshman squad, all of them made that much of an impact. It was just like, wow. Yeah, I guess y'all just need to start."

However, that season ended in devastation when the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to the cancellation of both NCAA basketball tournaments. The Gamecocks were prepared to enter the tournament as a 1-seed with a 33-1 record. Instead, dreams of a second national title for Harrigan and Harris — who were on the NCAA championship team in 2017 — became an eternal what if.

In 2021, the class of 2019 was desperate for a championship run; not for themselves, but to honor the two seniors who finished their careers on a deeply unfulfilling note. South Carolina faced heartbreak yet again, losing to Stanford in the Final Four on a missed buzzer-beater. Boston's tears after her jump shot hit the rim became one of the most iconic images from the tournament.

"We were on the road to it, but the following year I think they played for us. Unfortunately, they lost and that kind of gave them a chip on their shoulder," Harris said. "So it was like two extra fuels to the fire. When they won it (in 2022), I was crying. I was happy for them, because I just wanted to feel that feeling when I was there, too."

Harris now plays for the WNBA's Connecticut Sun and can't keep up with her former team as closely as she would like, but she never lost her investment in the freshmen that she and Harrigan mentored — the whole team is still in a group chat together. She remains particularly close with Cooke and said the senior guard has changed the most out of the group since her first season.

"I think Zia just got more confident in herself as a person," Harris said. "She's a dynamic three-way scorer, she's crafty, she's energetic, she's athletic. The basketball in the league is getting more like that with this generation of quick, crafty showing-off plays. She's a walking highlight reel, even if it's passing, defending, getting a steal."

It's a strange feeling for Harris to watch the class prepare to graduate and join her in professional basketball. To her, they'll always be the clueless 18-year-olds that she took under her wing.

"When I watch them play, I still see them as babies, having helped them do everything and driving them places and stuff," Harris said with a laugh. "But they've been able to sustain the hype, continue the legacy, continue to grow behind Dawn. They continue to flourish and build on what everybody else built before them."

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: How South Carolina women's basketball seniors made Tyasha Harris proud