South Carolina forecasts bright future for Maddy McDaniel as she learns from the bench
Maddy McDaniel got her first taste of postseason college basketball at the SEC Tournament in Greenville.
South Carolina and Vanderbilt were tied at 13 late in the first quarter of their quarterfinals game when the freshman subbed in for veteran guard Te-Hina Paopao.
Fifteen seconds later, she logged an assist after setting up a layup for Sania Feagin.
McDaniel might be a freshman, but she didn’t let the atmosphere of Bon Secours Wellness Arena get to her that day.
“When I first got here all my teammates were like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s your first SEC tournament,’ ” McDaniel said. “Once you’re out there, it feels like a normal game, everything’s regular. Can’t let it get too high, too low.”
McDaniel played 11 minutes in the win and only logged two more minutes of action in the rest of the conference tournament. How much she plays and contributes in the NCAA Tournament remains to be seen.
She’s not worried about it. She knows she’s part of a deep roster filled with some of the best guards in the country.
“Glad I was able to get out there and be ready when my number is called and help my team any way I can,” McDaniel said.
It won’t be that way forever.
Learning on the bench
There are 10 players on South Carolina’s roster who were McDonald’s All-Americans in high school. Of those, six are listed as guards — that includes McDaniel.
Sitting behind players like Paopao and Raven Johnson can be a blessing and a curse for players like McDaniel. One on hand, she’s learning from extremely talented players. On the other, she’s not consistently seeing the floor.
The 5-foot-9 McDaniel — or Maddy Mouse, as coach Dawn Staley calls her — has played in 26 of 35 games this year, but is averaging 12.2 minutes when she does play. She didn’t make her season debut until the third game of the year and missed some time early in SEC play with a concussion.
“She’s learning as she’s sitting,” Staley said on the “Carolina Calls” radio show in February. “That’s probably not what you want as a player, but the alternative is you’re sitting and you’re not learning. So I know come next year, when we lose half of our backcourt, Maddy is going to have had enough experience to just fit right in and do what she needs to do to help us win some games.”
McDaniel has learned to make the most of her minutes and to adapt to any situation.
“I can pretty much fit in wherever I need to,” McDaniel said. “Whether I have to be on the ball to give Raven a break or off the ball when Pao’s in to let her do her thing. It’s been good to figure out where I can fit in with a lot of other great players.”
Staley has praised McDaniel’s coachability, and her teammates say she’s done a great job at soaking up knowledge.
“She’s always looking to learn,” Tessa Johnson said. “She will ask questions and she, honestly, if she sees something, she’s gonna go tell you. She’s told me stuff like, ‘Tessa, that pass might not be there’ and stuff like that. I think what’s really special about her is that she’s always looking to get better and learn from people who are older than her, or the coaches.”
McDaniel’s opportunity to learn from a roster loaded with guards has already shown in her game. Bree Hall said she’s “grown so far” since the beginning of the season. Paopao said she’s been a “great listener” this year.
The biggest thing she’s learned from the team veterans is with her mindset, McDaniel said.
“Mistakes are gonna come with the game. Just keep playing,” McDaniel said. “Being a leader, they feed off you, so if you’re down, then the whole team’s gonna be down. You keep your composure, everybody’s gonna keep their composure.”
On a team full of talented players, McDaniel still finds ways to impact the game for South Carolina. And despite her smaller stature, McDaniel is a pesky defender and excels at driving the lane on offense.
“I think Maddy is going to be a great force to be reckoned with here,” Johnson said. “She’s under Coach Staley, and when you’re under Coach Staley you’re going to learn from the best.”
Staley has high hopes for McDaniel’s career at South Carolina and is expecting her to be an impact player sooner rather than later. Those expectations are a confidence boost, McDaniel said.
“Raven and Pao are our most experienced guards, and then Maddy comes in and gives us something totally different,” Staley said in the radio show interview. “Which is, the ability to get to the basket, like she can get to the basket. She’s fearless. Her defense, she does a really good job keeping people in front of her.”
McDaniel’s future is bright
When you ask Raven Johnson about McDaniel, a player comparison comes to her mind, and it isn’t anyone to scoff at.
It’s Zia Cooke.
“Maddy reminds me of a Zia Cooke,” Johnson said. “She has a little Zia Cooke swag, but I think she’s more in control with it.”
Cooke was a core member of the 2019 recruiting class Staley dubbed “The Freshies.” The class led South Carolina to a 129-9 record in four years, including three straight trips to the Final Four and a national title in 2022.
A dominant point guard, Cooke started in all 137 games she played in a Gamecock uniform. She was a three-time All-SEC player who was named an All-American in her senior season after averaging 15.4 points per game. Cooke was the No. 10 overall pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft.
Raven Johnson, who was teammates with Cooke for two seasons, said McDaniel’s “savviness” on the court is similar to Cooke’s.
“Her savviness (and) her getting to the cup,” Johnson said. “She can get to the cup, nobody can stop her from getting to the cup. She just plays with a little swag about her and I like that about her.”
McDaniel joked she’s heard the comparisons for a while now.
“As soon as I got here the first day I moved in, that’s the instant first comparison I always got,” McDaniel said.
It probably helps that McDaniel and Cooke share a birthday (Jan. 9, for those curious), are the same height (both listed at 5-foot-9) and share a jersey number (1).
McDaniel said she talked with Cooke some before coming to South Carolina and will hear from her from time to time, mainly when Cooke and Feagin are on Facetime. Regardless, she said having someone like Cooke — along with her current teammates — as a resource is “really good” for her.
“It is really good … having Raven and Pao always there day in and day out for practice and I know I can go outside of that and have Zia,” McDaniel said.
At the end of the day, yes, there are some similarities between McDaniel and Cooke. But, McDaniel is her own player with a full career ahead of her — just ask Hall.
“I think Maddy McDaniel is Maddy McDaniel,” she said.
This story was originally published March 26, 2025 at 7:30 AM with the headline "South Carolina forecasts bright future for Maddy McDaniel as she learns from the bench."
