MiLaysia Fulwiley dreamed of playing at USC. She’s ready to be a star for Gamecocks

MiLaysia Fulwiley’s eyes glance skyward. She’s thinking about the first time she came to Colonial Life Arena as a fan. She was around 8 years old, and A’ja Wilson patrolled the floor for the Gamecocks. Fulwiley was seated in the rafters.

“Nosebleeds. All the way up. Really high,” she said Wednesday, smirking.

Fulwiley has dreamed of playing at South Carolina since she was a kid. The recruiting process was that — a process — but there was always a feeling she’d land in Columbia, despite overtures from Ole Miss, Louisville and Florida, among others.

There was a familiarity with coach Dawn Staley that dated back to Fulwiley’s seventh-grade days, when she first received a USC offer. AAU teammate and current Gamecocks sophomore Ashlyn Watkins was already on the roster, too. South Carolina simply made too much sense.

Fulwiley now lays in bed at night with excitement coursing through her veins. Looking into the ceiling of her dorm room, the five-star freshman and No. 13 player in espnW’s 2023 rankings realizes she’s living the early stages of that dream she cooked up years ago.

There are seasons to be played. Ample wins should follow. Frankly, this dream is barely even a reality at this moment. Fulwiley knows this. But her otherworldly talent makes it hard not to imagine what’s to come.

“I really felt the pressure before I committed,” she said. “But then once I got here and I saw how well I transitioned from high school to college, I felt like I should be good. It’s no pressure. If I’m just patient and learn how to take critique and learn how to take a whole lot of criticism — like know when and when not to do add the sauce — I feel like I’ll be good.”

‘She’s just a dog out there’

These things don’t happen often around South Carolina. This is a program that boasts two national titles in the past seven years. It’s been stocked with experience for much of that time. Freshmen, talented as they might be, rarely make generational impacts for a team that signs McDonald’s All-Americans as regularly as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West.

But Fulwiley isn’t normal.

It only takes a brief YouTube search to see why. She’s 5-foot-6 and can dunk. She’s lightning quick with the ball in her hand. Fulwiley’s high school résumé included four state titles, more than 2,000 points and a senior scoring average of nearly 30 points per game. Her highlight film from her freshman year of high school has more than 177,000 views.

“She is insane,” fellow freshman Tessa Johnson said. “I never watched her that much (in high school), but just practicing with her she is very supportive. It’s just a feeling you get when you’re on the court with her. She’s not just focused on herself. She’s worried about her teammates and her surroundings.

“She’s just a dog out there. She really is.”

There’s a starquality even in the way that Fulwiley talks. She’s open and honest. She’s comfortable and confident. She smiles when explaining her new teammates call her “Lay” — short for “Lay wit the butter,” a nod to her smooth offensive ability. (Fulwiley jokes maybe one day Lay’s will come through with an NIL deal.)

Compare that to Watkins — a rising star for the Gamecocks in her own right and the No. 12 player in the 2022 class — who walked past the interview area set up for Fulwiley and the other newcomers Wednesday morning, head down and flipping through her phone, hoping not to have to small talk with any of the gathered media members.

This isn’t to say one personality is better than the other. They’re different. Where Watkins is quiet in her dominance and all-world talent, Fulwiley’s charisma is part of what makes her so magnetic despite not having suited up for a single game at South Carolina. She oozes confidence, noting she has desires to do things that Aliyah Boston and Wilson never did at South Carolina (like win two national championships, not just one).

It’s no surprise Excel Sports Management — the same agency that counts Peyton and Eli Manning, Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert and ex-Clemson star Trevor Lawrence among its football clients — represents her for NIL deals. She’s charming, marketable and, most importantly, a darn good basketball player.

“The hype is real,” Oregon transfer Te-Hina Paopao said. “She is what she is on media.”

Freshman expectations at South Carolina

There’s an awareness internally and around the nation that South Carolina women’s basketball is in transition mode. The “Freshies” — the class that included Boston, Zia Cooke, Laeticia Amihere, Brea Beal and Olivia Thompson — are off to the professional ranks. That void has created a talent vacuum in Columbia.

Fulwiley and the rest of her class have prowess and recruiting rankings to inspire confidence whatever changing of the guard is coming ought to be as smooth as can be in the midst of such a significant talent drain.

The former Keenan High School star is the headliner at No. 13 in espnW’s top 100 player rankings. She’s followed closely by Chloe Kitts (who reclassified to 2022 and joined USC last fall) at No. 17. Johnson (No. 25) and wing Sahnya Jah (No. 40) are just behind that.

Fulwiley notes the class has a group chat entitled “Freshies.” She jokes they’re workshopping new names, given the weight that name carries in Columbia.

This, on some level, is why it feels more like a “when,” not “if,” Fulwiley will help South Carolina maintain its spot among the nation’s elite. She’s wholly aware of what came before her. She acknowledges the negatives outside pressure can bring, compared to internal expectations. But she’s been prepping for this.

Ten years ago she sat in the tippy top of Colonial Life Arena. The area was largely barren. Banners from Staley’s squads have since filled those spaces. Fulwiley expects to add her own in the next however many years she’s at South Carolina.

She may still be transitioning, but the way she carries herself at 18 years old, it feels as though Fulwiley is as destined for stardom as anyone can be.

“I’m not trying to make myself sound hype, but it’s different,” she said. “My teammates used to always tell me (my game) is different. I just know if I keep working hard and I make it transition into the game, then I should be good.”