South Carolina women’s basketball junior guard Te’a Cooper — and her pet guinea pig, Buddha — first came onto many people’s radars when she was 16 years old, appearing on MTV’s long-running reality show “True Life” on Dec. 9, 2014.
In an episode that followed three student-athletes through their recruitment, Cooper’s father, Omar, pushed his daughter to take her college choice more seriously, forcing her to make tough decisions on her own while also training her on the court.
“I really wanted to do (the show), because I’m all for that kind of stuff. I was on board, my family was on board,” Cooper told The State.