LA Sparks GM praises Sania Feagin for her patience at South Carolina
The first round of the WNBA Draft concluded Monday night with no names of Gamecocks called.
Five more picks went by in the second round. There were still no South Carolina players selected.
All of the sudden, with the Nos. 18, 20 and 21 picks, all three draft-eligible Gamecocks were selected in near succession of each other. Te-Hina Paopao was taken by the Atlanta Dream, then Bree Hall was picked by the Indiana Fever and Sania Feagin rounded things out when she was selected by the Los Angeles Sparks.
Both Paopao and Feagin were projected to be first-round picks in various mock drafts. The fact that a player of Feagin’s caliber was still available so deep into the draft left LA Sparks general manager Raegan Pebley “stunned.”
“Our whole war room was stunned that she was still available as late as she was,” Pebley said in a video posted this week. “We wanted to bring some post depth, some center depth, some rim protection depth. But she’s also a player that I think has a runway ahead of her that will only expand her range and her abilities and her potential.
“She’s won 144 games in college and only lost seven. She stayed at South Carolina her entire career. She won two national championships. That is something you cannot dismiss.”
During a news conference Thursday, Pebley went on to praise Feagin, relatively unprompted, for the patience she showed during her time at South Carolina.
“Sania comes from a program that has had bigs that have transitioned really well into the WNBA, and so she’s been mentored really well,” Pebley said. “Sania is somebody I think that even while staying committed to a process — like people keep saying that about her — but a lot of people don’t know what that means, actually, in real life.”
Feagin didn’t really have the opportunity to enter the limelight at South Carolina until her senior year after sitting behind such future WNBA draft picks as Aliyah Boston, Laeticia Amihere, Victoria Saxton and Kamilla Cardoso.
She made the most of her time as a senior and saw her draft stock rise the most during the season’s final stretch.
Feagin was named to the All-SEC defensive team (her first All-SEC honor), All-SEC Tournament and earned NCAA All-Regional team honors in March. She averaged a career-high 8.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 blocks while starting all 39 games for the Gamecocks.
“Waiting your turn is way harder than people realize,” Pebley said. “To be able to come in every single day, it’s not just about game day and it’s not just about the press conferences after games and the wins. It’s about that every single day in practice, and what that means. So we definitely filtered that in our choice of Sania, just that toughness and resiliency that she has.”
The Sparks drafted Alabama’s Sarah Ashlee Barker the No. 9 overall pick in the first round of the draft. On Thursday, Barker echoed Pebley’s praises of Feagin.
“Like Raegan was saying, she’s waited her turn, but she’s done it in the most humble and respectful way,” Barker said. “She’s truly put in the work. She has truly tried to be her best self every single day. And that’s just me watching like someone from afar. I’m not even on the team and you can just tell that by how she acts and how she plays.”
Barker, who faced Feagin often during her time in the SEC at Georgia and Alabama, also praised Feagin’s ability to impact the game on both sides of the ball.
“She’s going to be a great defender. I saw that playing against her,” Barker said. “She’s a great shot blocker. She brings so much to the team, just the little things that don’t even show up in the stat sheet. But she can also score too — if she’s going one on one, she can beat her defender. She does a great job of when people close in and double team her, she knows how to kick the ball out and get people open shots.
Feagin signed her rookie scale contract with the Sparks on Wednesday. WNBA training camp starts April 27.
This story was originally published April 18, 2025 at 12:59 PM with the headline "LA Sparks GM praises Sania Feagin for her patience at South Carolina."
