By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Time was when Te'a Cooper didn't really like basketball.
Growing weary of watching her older sister and dad play, she thought "it was just so dramatic, just to put the ball in the goal."
            Now, she doesn't want to give it up.
            "I want to play in the WNBA, that's my goal," said Cooper, a grad transfer from South Carolina and one of four Baylor seniors that will be honored at halftime of Thursday's game between the No. 2-ranked Lady Bears (27-1, 16-0) and Texas (18-10, 10-6). "That's all I want to do."
            Like Texas Tech transfer Erin DeGrate, Cooper's only been with the program since last summer. But, she knows that "when the music starts and everybody's up," the tears will come.
            "Oh, man!" she said. "I'm not ready for it, especially with (Lauren) Cox and Juicy (Landrum) being here all four years. Whew!"
            It's been a seamless transition from Final Four MVP Chloe Jackson to Cooper, who's averaging 13.9 points, 4.8 assists and 1.8 steals per game and shooting 41.7 percent from 3-point range (53-of-127).  
            As Landrum put it, on the first day of workouts, "It was just like Te'a fit in. We laugh and joke all the time. Her personality just kind of fits in with ours."
            "It was weird. Like, I didn't even have to spend a lot of time with them," Cooper said. "It was almost like they already knew me, and I just walked into a family. . . . That's how the coaching staff is, so it kind of just trickles down. It's like a whole big circle, and no one stands alone."
            The first grad transfer Mulkey had ever taken, Jackson actually opened the door that Cooper walked into last summer. Meeting through mutual friends – Cooper's high school teammate, Dominique Wilson, was a teammate of Jackson's at North Carolina State – they became close friends that have stayed in touch through the years.
            "Chloe kept telling me about someone that wanted to transfer, and I initially ignored Chloe. And then she just kept after me," Mulkey said. "Finally, one day, I said, 'What's her story and why does she want to come here?' And she said because she wants to play point guard. At South Carolina, she was never going to be the point guard. And that was a true story, because I called (South Carolina coach) Dawn Staley and asked her. When you're a grad transfer, I think all the mistakes you've made in the past you learn from them and you start from fresh."
            A McDonald's All-American at McEachern High School in Powder Springs, Ga., Cooper started her collegiate career at Tennessee. She made 15 starts and averaged 8.6 points per game, earning All-SEC Freshman Team honors.
            After redshirting the next year with a knee injury, Cooper transferred to South Carolina and sat out the 2017-18 season. Two years removed from playing, she led a balanced scoring attack with 11.9 points per game and earned second-team All-SEC honors last year, helping the Gamecocks reach the region semifinals before a Sweet 16 loss to Baylor.
            With Tyasha Harris returning for her senior season, "I just felt like I would end up playing the (shooting guard) position again. And I didn't really want to do that," Cooper said. "I felt like this was my last year, and I had to do what was best for me."
            One thing Cooper has added that wasn't part of Jackson's game is a legitimate 3-point threat. While Jackson made just one 3-pointer all season, Cooper is second on the team behind Landrum with 53 treys and has knocked down at least one in all but five games.
            Mulkey, a former point guard herself at Louisiana Tech, told Cooper her job was to "distribute the ball and get the ball to the right people at the right time and learn the offense."
            "I told her, everyone on that team wanted to play for her and with her," Mulkey said. "I think she's adjusted and adapted well, and she's been a really good addition to our team."
            While Mulkey can be demanding on her point guards, Cooper said, "I don't take things personally, so I probably don't feel like I get yelled at as much as I do."
            "But, I think I'm doing OK, she doesn't really get on me too much," she said. "I think I'm doing all right."
            With Jackson leading last year's team to a 37-1 record and the program's third national championship, there was a standard and expectation for Cooper as she stepped into the role this year.
            "I live for standards and expectations, so it didn't bother me," she said. "What they did last year was amazing. That was last year. This is a new year, and we've got to do it again."
            There's no pressure, Mulkey said, "when you have that kind of talent around you." Cox, Landrum and junior DiDi Richards are returning starters from the national championship team, and sophomores NaLyssa Smith and Queen Egbo have taken on larger roles this year.
            "It's like a quarterback. If you've got the receivers and the offensive line and a running back, all you've got to do is manage the game," Mulkey said. "Then, you add the talent that she has to all the talent around her, that's not pressure. That's a kid that wanted to play point guard, saw what Chloe did, and she was not going to be the point guard at South Carolina. We welcomed her and did our homework on her, as I'm sure she did her homework on us. And it's just been a good fit."
            Cooper, who earned her undergrad degree in interdisciplinary studies at South Carolina, is taking graduate classes in Truett Seminary. A projected first-round pick in this year's WNBA Draft, she eventually wants to get into modeling and possibly doing commercials, "and I want to have my own fashion clothing line."
            Engaged to Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard, an eight-time All-Star, Cooper said it's been impossible to set a wedding date. "Not right now, but soon," she said.
            The spotlight of being an NBA superstar's fiancée has not been a problem, she said, "because nobody really says anything. If I'm somewhere, and they're all talking about it, I couldn't hear you unless you told me. So, I don't really get bothered by anything."
            Baylor, which has already clinched its 10^th-consecutive Big 12 championship, hosts Texas at 7:30 p.m. Thursday before closing the regular season on Saturday with a 12 p.m. matchup on the road at Iowa State (17-11, 9-8).
            "We're playing to win, you don't sit people like they do in the NBA," Mulkey said. "We don't do that. We play to win every game. If the starters need to play 40 minutes to win, we'll play 40 minutes to win. If they don't, and we can play everybody, you try to do that."
            Cooper, DeGrate, Cox and Landrum will be honored during a halftime ceremony.
            "Make sure you appreciate them while they're here," Mulkey said. "Those kids are talented, and we'll see how far they will take us."