Bart Walker remembers the first day.

The head coach at Northwest Florida State College, a Junior College in Niceville, Florida, acn still picture the first time he saw Sakima Walker on the court. Sakmia was coming down to the JUCO level from Rutgers University, poised to turn her career around, poised to turn her career around after two turbulent years in Piscataway.

“I just remember that she was very bubbly when she showed up,” Bart told GamecockScoop. “For a player that’s coming down from D1 having to fix things and go JUCO, she came in with a great bubbly attitude, and that’s what she is. She smiles a lot, and she had a good time.”

After one year at Northwest Florida State where she helped the Raiders win a National Championship, she re-entered the transfer portal and emerged as the newest member of Dawn Staley’s re-loading effort at South Carolina.

Walker’s two years at Rutgers started in the malaise of COVID-era basketball and never fully got on track. Legendary head coach C. Vivian Stringer retired following the 2021-22 season, further throwing Walker’s plans into disarray. She played in 32 games for the Scarlet Knights across two seasons and averaged just over four points per game, the latter season finishing as Rutgers’ worst conference record since it joined the Big Ten in 2014.

She needed a fresh start, and took the risk of dropping down to the junior college level for it.

“She had a detour in her life,” Bart said. “But she just really matured a lot throughout the season, both on and off the court. Just taking care of her business, learning how to make sure everything gets done in the classroom, I think maturity is just the biggest thing. She just grew up.”

Still, her potential was impossible to ignore. The frame, checking in at 6-foot-5. Her athleticism. Her ability to stretch the floor. The way she was a “free mover” as Walker called her, a player with the ability to play both facing the basket getting downhill and with her back to the basket. If everything clicked, Sakima had all the makings of a dominant player.

It did, and she was.

The stats said it all, and so did her team’s results. An average of 16.7 points in 32 games, and an even better clip of 19.6 points per game in a dozen conference games. Nearly a double-double average with 8.6 rebounds per game. The national JUCO Player of the Year, an every game starter on a team that finished 29-4 en route to the National Championship.

And perhaps most exciting for South Carolina fans, a player who was at her absolute best when the chips were down. Walker scored 23 points, secured 12 rebounds and blocked four shots in Northwest Florida State’s title game victory.

“She can get out there and demand the ball,” Bart said. “She’s going to take the leadership and try to carry a team when she has to. We had some really good other players that were freshmen that are going to be coming back, but she led us and did a lot of things. Her ability to protect the rim — you have to be tough to do those kinds of things. I think she’s got that toughness in her, and still has room for growth.”

That room for growth had her eyes set on a bigger future. A chance to jump not just back into the Division I ranks, but to play at the highest reaches of college basketball and beyond. After sifting through multiple power five offers, South Carolina was the right fit.

It was the right place for her in terms of having a chance to compete right away, with the Gamecocks needing to replace both frontcourt starters after losing Aliyah Boston and Victaria Saxton to the WNBA. It was the right spot for her dream of eventually playing professional basketball, a decision further cemented by five of the first 25 players off the board in the most recent WNBA Draft coming from South Carolina. And after talking with Staley herself, everything locked in.

“We had a zoom with Dawn,” Bart remembered. “She was very straightforward with her [Sakima]. She told her, ‘we want you, here’s how we run our deal, and we’re going to keep doing it that way.’ I think she respected that, because we kind of do the same thing. We run it old school. We take care of our business, we run it with character and we go from there.”

When Walker finally gets on the court in November, it will be something of a full circle moment. From power five basketball to junior college and back, playing for a team expected to be back in the National Championship hunt.

She spent less than a full year out of Division I basketball, but it changed everything. Maturity, focus, and through it all that same bubbly personality Walker remembers jumping off the page.

“I think she would tell you she felt very comfortable there,” he said. “And I think she’ll come in and do the work. She’s ready to do what she has to do, and she’s going to have to compete because South Carolina has several good players.”

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