There’s another portal win for the South Carolina softball team. Former Ole Miss catcher Jamie Mackay has officially committed to the Gamecocks marking the eighth addition to the 2025 transfer class. It is also the second Ole Miss Rebel to flip to South Carolina, following teammate Tate Davis to the Gamecocks. Mackay has one year of eligibility remaining.

Mackay was a key part of the postseason run for the Rebels, appearing in 36 games during the season. She started 20 of those games, batting a .284 with 12 RBIs, 19 hits, two homeruns, and six runs scored. She also delivered one of the most memorable moments of the Women’s College World Series, delivering a game-tying 2-RBI single in the seventh inning against Oregon.

In her career, Mackay has a .262 average with six homeruns, 16 doubles, and 37 RBIs in 252 at-bats across three seasons. She is versatile too, starting 45 games in right field in 2024 after spending the majority of her career as a catcher.

Mackay joins a star-studded transfer class that includes:

• Josey Marron (Mississippi State RHP)

• Tori Ensley (NC State OF)

• Tate Davis (Ole Miss INF)

• Alyssa Hovermale (Florida INF)

• Emma Friedel (Kennesaw State P)

• Precious Bross (Georgia INF)

With Mackay now on the roster, Gamecock head coach Ashley Chastain-Woodard continues to build a championship-caliber team. And coming off the program’s first-ever Women’s College World Series appearance, this Gamecock squad will be ready for another run at a title.

Cooper Flagg
Dressin’ Like A ‘BOSS’ For Draft
Partners W/ Fashion Brand

Published June 25, 2025 3:11 PM PDT

College athletes are channeling their NIL earnings into venture capital investments. Front Office Sports reports that three college quarterbacks — including a potential top-five pick — are putting their money into VC-backed start-ups.

South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers — projected as one of the top signal-callers in the 2026 NFL Draft — Southern Methodist University’s Kevin Jennings and Kansas State University’s Avery Johnson have invested in The Cashmere Fund. According to Front Office Sports, the fund is a “Nasdaq-listed venture capital fund that allows non-accredited investors to invest in VC-backed start-ups.”

Buffalo Bills players Josh Allen and Damar Hamlin are also investors.

“There was some business savvy in all of them,” Elia Infascelli, CEO of Cashmere, told Front Office Sports. “Avery Johnson is a business major, for example. They didn’t need to do this, but they wanted to.

“They are investors in the fund just like any other person would invest in the fund.”

Cashmere is working with college athletes to bring more attention to their fund and attract additional investors.

“At 18, 19, or 21, to think about long-term relationships and invest without any immediate upside today, that’s rare,” Infascelli explained.

NIL has created new opportunities for college athletes. For those who won’t turn pro, these ventures offer a path to financial stability beyond their college careers.

Matt Higgins worked in national and local news for 15 years. He started out as an overnight production assistant … More about Matt Higgins

It’s fair to say Kendrick Perkins is extremely high on Cooper Flagg.

PublishedJune 25, 2025 10:48 AM EDT•UpdatedJune 25, 2025 10:48 AM EDT

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One of the greatest aspects of the NBA Draft is the talking heads in the media trying to come up with player comparisons for prospects, and Kendrick Perkins truly outdid himself with his Cooper Flagg comp.

It’s only natural for folks in the media to compare prospects to some of the best players in the league. That is what stirs the pot, and comparing a top-tier prospect to a player that averages 10 points per game doesn’t exactly make for the most exciting content.

NBA Draft Prospects Give Varying Opinions Of NIL Effect On College Basketball

Given the fact that Flagg has been the sure-thing first-overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft since his high school days, he’s been compared to essentially every notable player in the league up to this point. It has forced the media to think outside of the box when coming up with any sort of original thought about the undisputed best player in the draft.

Perkins took a swing at doing just that during ESPN pre-NBA Draft coverage on Tuesday, and delivered an all-time comparison for the former Duke star.

“This is how I look at Cooper Flagg, if LeBron James and Kevin Garnett had a baby, you’d get Cooper Flagg,” Perkins said.

Now look, Perkins makes some fair points while describing Flagg as an all-around player, such as James, and then as a tenacious competitor like Garnett, but it feels like a significant stretch to go ahead and try and lump him into a category of two of the best players to ever do it.

Folks on social media went to town on Perkins after his strange comment about Flagg:

The NBA Draft is set to get underway at Barclays Center in Brooklyn at 8:00 PM ET on Wednesday.

This year, the NBA Draft saw its fewest early entrants in a decade. Just 106 players entered the draft by the end of April, which continues a downward trend from 363 declarations in 2021 just before the NIL era began.

More players are opting to stay in college and hone their skills now that they are able to enter into NIL deals and make money. To ESPN’s Jay Bilas, that helps both the college and professional games.

Bilas said the amount of talent returning to college programs means those players can become more well-rounded by the time they reach the NBA. As a result, both levels can benefit – and it makes the later rounds of the draft a bit more interesting.

“I think what we’re seeing is that NIL and the opportunity to make money while you’re in college has caused players that may have been fringe-first rounders or second-round picks to stay in school longer,” Bilas said on FOS Today. “Why go in when you’re doing so well financially in college? You can wait now and go when you really feel like you’re ready. So we’ve seen, the second round is a lot different with NIL that it would have been in past years, you would’ve seen a lot of players go. And now, they’re staying, and I think that’s nothing but a good thing, certainly, for college basketball, to keep more talent in the game.

“But I think it’s also good for the NBA that they’re getting finished products when they decide to go and players that are really [feeling] like they’re truly ready. I think that’s a good thing for the NBA, as well.”

One of the most notable draft withdrawals was Labaron Philon, who announced his decision to return to Alabama despite having first-round potential and initially saying he’d stay in the draft. On3’s James Fletcher III ranked the former touted recruit as the No. 27 overall player on his Big Board prior to his announcement.

Florida also won big with NBA Draft withdrawals, keeping Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu on the roster after last season’s national title. Former Memphis guard PJ Haggerty also withdrew from the draft and eventually announced his decision to transfer to Kansas State for an NIL deal reportedly in the “neighborhood” of $2.5 million. He was considered a fringe second-round pick.

The 2025 NBA Draft officially gets underway Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET. Round 2 will take place Thursday at 8 p.m. ET.