A statue at the front of Colonial Life Arena was never going to be enough. Not for how good of a player she was.
But now, South Carolina women’s basketball will take the next step in honoring former great A’ja Wilson. The team announced on Tuesday that it will be retiring Wilson’s jersey this upcoming season. She will become the fifth player to have her number in the rafters inside Colonial Life Arena.
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Press release from USC Athletics
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina will retire the jersey of four-time All-American, three-time SEC Player of the Year and three-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson in a pregame ceremony on Sun., Feb. 2, before the Gamecocks take the court against Auburn at Colonial Life Arena. The program’s first No. 1 recruit became its first No. 1 WNBA Draft pick and added a high-profile list of program firsts in between both as an individual and as a team.
The program’s first four-time All-American and National Player of the Year (2018), Wilson led South Carolina to its first SEC Tournament championship (2015), first NCAA Final Four (2015) and first NCAA National Championship (2017). She became the first player in league history to win SEC Player of the Year three times and to go undefeated in four years of playing in the SEC Tournament. The Gamecocks won the SEC regular season three times in her four seasons.
Individually, Wilson is the program’s all-time leading scorer at 2,389 points and still holds a total of 22 program records. Her 122 career double-figure scoring games are 22nd in NCAA history as she hit that mark in all but 16 games in her career.
Wilson was a First-Team All-SEC selection of both the league coaches and the media every year of her career, and she added two SEC Defensive Player of the Year honors to her three SEC Player of the Year trophies. She was a National Player of the Year finalist in 2016 and 2017 before sweeping the awards in 2018. Wilson was the program’s first Honda Cup finalist as well.
With her legendary high school career in Columbia continuing into her record-setting college career in the same city, University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides announced at Wilson’s 2018 graduation ceremony that a statue of her would be commissioned to honor her contributions to the program and her hometown. In January 2021, that promise came to life with the installation of the 11-foot bronze statue, one of just three on the University’s campus that represents a specific individual and the first woman of that group, outside the main entrance of Colonial Life Arena.
After her graduation, Wilson became the No. 1 pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft and wasted little time making her mark on that league as well. She became the Gamecocks’ second WNBA Rookie of the Year and went on to win WNBA MVP three times, Defensive Player of the Year twice, First-Team All-WNBA four times and All-Star six times. Internationally, she became just the second Gamecock to play for the United States in the Olympic Games, guiding the United States to gold medals in the Tokyo (2020) and Paris (2024) Olympics, including MVP honors in 2024.
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Retired jerseys are selected by a committee of representatives from the South Carolina Athletics Department, University Board of Trustees, and the USC Lettermen’s Association.
Factors for jersey retirement include post-season national and conference recognitions, school record holders, impact on team accomplishments and either graduating from South Carolina or leaving the school in good academic standing. There is a five-year waiting period, which begins at the conclusion of the student-athlete’s final season of collegiate competition.
Tickets are still available for the Feb. 2 game vs. Auburn at: https://bit.ly/3A5Y5Fk.
Continue to check GamecocksOnline.com and the team’s social media accounts (@GamecockWBB) for the most up-to-date information on South Carolina women’s basketball.
