TAMPA, Fla. — Maryam Dauda called her shot. Wednesday afternoon in South Carolina women’s basketball’s first shootaround of the Final Four, she knocked down a 3-pointer. Dawn Staley had a challenge.
“So when are you going to do that in the game,” the Hall of Famer asked.
Dauda’s response?
“Friday.”
Bullseye, in more than one way.
Dauda’s exclamation point triple in the final minute of South Carolina’s 74-57 victory over Texas — her first made 3-pointer since the Arkansas game on Feb. 20 and seventh all season — felt like a crowning moment for a player who has been through more than her fair share of struggles all season, but is still loved by her teammates, coaches and fans.
“Maryam has just worked her butt off tirelessly this whole entire time since she stepped on campus,” Adhel Tac said. “I’m just glad to see the fruits of her efforts. She’s an amazing person, and she’s always quick to support one of her teammates, so of course we’re going to show up and support her. She did an amazing job, and we wouldn’t have been able to do it without her.”
In every possible way, Dauda has embraced her first NCAA Tournament to the fullest. Every game on the bench, every event, every opportunity to smile and enjoy herself. During Thursday’s open locker room session, she grabbed a camera and started taking photos to embrace the full experience.
“I think when we got off the plane and we had our little welcome party, I felt like it finally hit,” Dauda said. “We’re finally here, and I’m actually here. I’m embracing it and soaking everything in.”
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This was always the plan, the best case scenario when Dauda entered the transfer portal nearly a full year ago. She was open about wanting to challenge herself, about wanting to play at the highest level and was willing to take a risk to do it, even if she had to leave home for it.
“I’ve never played in an NCAA Tournament, and I felt like it was time,” Dauda said back in July. “Watching everyone else or watching this team [South Carolina] in the tournament, it was time for me to find someone else who would help me make that transition.”
She has had more than her fair share of struggles. Moving away from home for the first time, adjusting to a Championship level program and trying to carve out a role on a team coming off a 38-0 season. For most of the season, she rode the bench or only played in garbage time.
But on Feb. 20, playing her former school, she found a little bit of mojo with extended action. It continued through the end of the regular season, into her best defensive performance of the season when she shut down Oklahoma star Raegan Beers in the SEC Tournament semifinals. It carried over into Friday, when she picked up Chloe Kitts after an early four just two minutes in against Texas and played the rest of the quarter. She played 15:51 against the Longhorns, just a few ticks shy of her most action in any game all season.
She dreamed of this day her whole life, and had a vision in her head about how it could look last summer.
Now that it’s here, though? That she is on the cusp of winning a National Championship and checking every single box she set out to when she was first trying to decide where to go in the transfer portal?
Surreal.
“Honestly I didn’t think I would do that,” Dauda said. “But also coming here and talking to coach when she was recruiting me, I knew that was the game plan. I’m just so glad we’re here, and we have one more game. Let’s go win it all.”
Just like with her 3-pointer on Friday, Dauda called her shot.
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