While there is no official confirmation available for this information, it appears that the University of South Carolina Gamecocks have landed a transfer student to help fill out the roster of the women's basketball team. Valerie Nainima, who completed her sophomore season at Long Island University in 2008, is on the South Carolina campus and reportedly attending summer school with other members of the basketball team.

Nainima is a 5-7 guard who was highly decorated during her two seasons at LIU. She is more or less the face of the Blackbirds, her picture graces the women's basketball page of the LIU website. Nainima was the Northeast Conference Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year in her freshman season; last season, she was named All-Met First Team (it's a Philadelphia thing) with some other pretty impressive players: Matee Ajavon, Essence Carson, Kia Vaughn and Rachele Fitz. In her two years at LIU, Nainima managed to reach the 1000-point mark in only 53 games. Last season, she averaged 20.4 points per game, tenth best in the nation.
Nainima has also played for the Fiji women's national basketball team.

A shooting guard will be a very welcome addition to the Gamecocks team, who will be losing their most consistent scoring guard, senior Brionna Dickerson, to graduation after the 2009 season.