2021 was a highly successful year for National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes closing on name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals. Now, for this year, Black college basketball players continue to set the tone. This is especially true for Zia Cooke. Data from Opendorse — a NIL technology company — released in March shows that women ballers specifically are the second highest paid in the organization. CBS News reports that Zia Cooke was marked as “one of the highest paid college basketball players in the Final Four.” “It just shows that we can do a lot of things that a lot of people say we can’t do,” she said, according to CBS News. “To see all the girls on there for the NIL and I think it was just one boy it shows that we can do literally everything they can do. It’s a business and it’s super effective for women and men.” Along with her hoop skills and being her team’s leading scorer on the court, the University of South Carolina’s women’s basketball star’s social media...

Dawn Staley is officially the highest-paid head coach in NCAA Women’s Basketball, thanks to a seven-year contract totaling $22.4 million to continue her position with The University of South Carolina. Since her tenure at the University dating back 13 seasons, the Hall of Famer has flipped the conversation surrounding the women’s basketball program due to their impressive statistics. They are one of only three programs that were featured in half of the last six NCAA Final Fours (as of this writing) in which they took home the trophy in 2017. Under Staley’s reign, the team was the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament five times and racked up an impressive 25 weeks at the top spot in the Associated Press Poll. And, these accomplishments are merely scratching the surface for how the recent Olympic Champion has transformed The University of South Carolina’s women’s basketball program. “Dawn Staley is one of the nation’s top coaches, regardless of the sport,” Ray Tanner, South Carolina...