Note: The following appears in the February issue of Orange: The Experience. For full access to all of the publication’s content, join IPTAY today by calling 864-656-2115.
Q. Where are you from?A. I’m from Augusta, Ga., where I graduated from Lucy C. Laney High School.
Q. Do you have any siblings?A. Yes, I have four siblings, two older sisters, one younger sister and one younger brother.
Q. How did you first become involved with basketball?A. When I was five, I played rec. basketball, and my coach also happened to be a travel ball coach. I worked out with her travel team and then began to play with them, traveling around to play different teams. So I started out at a really young age and have been playing basketball ever since.
Q. Who is your biggest inspiration?A. My mom is, without a doubt, my biggest inspiration. She pushes me every single day. She gives me motivational speeches and talks to me to make sure everything is ok. Watching her work hard and provide for all of us, it inspires me.
Q. Why did you choose to attend Clemson?A. I like the family atmosphere. When I got here, everyone was friendly and outgoing, which made me feel like this was a second home.
Q. What is your major?A. I started off majoring in health science, but now I major in PRTM.
Q. What is your favorite class that you have taken at Clemson?A. I really enjoyed public speaking.
Q. Aside from basketball, what are some of your hobbies?A. I like to listen to music and eat! I also like to hang out with my teammates.
Q. Now in your second year with the program, what has been special about this season?A. We got off to a great start at the beginning of the season during non-conference play. But from a team standpoint, nothing is all that different from my first year here. We still always work hard, and that’s motivation for us to keep pushing and keep improving.
Q. What do you enjoy the most about being a Clemson student-athlete?A. I enjoy a lot of things. Being an athlete at Clemson, in general, I really enjoy that. Also, the fans that we have are very supportive, and that helps a lot, getting to play in front of them game in and game out. I also really enjoy being around the people who take care of the players and make sure that we have the right things and that our education is going well.
Q. What has been your favorite memory at Clemson?A. Last year, we played a game at Tennessee Tech. We got up by 17 at one point, and, on the bench, players were having fun, doing various things to energize the players in the game. We were all very animated, and that helped us go on to get the win.
Q. How has playing basketball influenced your life?A. It kept me out of trouble and gave me something to look forward to doing every day. It was basically my go-to. Whenever I was going through something, I would play basketball. Growing up, I always played basketball. My family played basketball, too. So it’s basically all I’ve ever known.
Q. What do you love most about the Clemson area?A. I can’t decide between the people and the campus. I really love them both.
Q. What are your post-graduation plans?A. After I graduate, I want to further my basketball career by playing overseas. Later on, I want to become a coach.
Q. What inspired you to want to pursue a career in coaching?A. I really like helping others. When other players need help learning how to do a particular move or when they specifically ask me for help with something, I’m always up to help them out and teach them how to do certain things. My rec. coach from my childhood and former Clemson assistant Margaret Richards inspired me to want to coach the game one day.
Q. How do you envision your life 10 years from now?A. I think I’ll probably be a basketball coach at the collegiate level.
Q. What lasting impact do you hope to make on the world?A. As for my lasting impact at Clemson, I want to do the best that I can to help the team win and be the next great player to come out of Clemson. I want people to look up to me because of the things I’ve done here. In life, I want to inspire people to be great at whatever it is that they aspire to be great in, whether it be basketball or something else.
December 10, 2024
