PISCATAWAY — Mia Pauldo could hear it every time she touched the basketball. The high-pitched cheers started, “Mia! Mia!” from the top corner of the lower bowl of Jersey Mike’s Arena. Her twin sister Mya Pauldo heard the same thing.
It was their support system from Paterson, reminding them why they came home.
Mia and Mya Pauldo helped Rutgers polish off Long Island University, 83-52, in the season opener. With their family and dozens of kids behind them, the twins began to put their disappointing freshman seasons behind them.
“I was locked in for sure, but I love when they’re loud and obnoxious,” said Mia, the Scarlet Knights’ point guard, who had 21 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
“It reminds me why I do what I do. They definitely know who we are. Paterson kids are so awesome.”
Rebuilding Rutgers basketball
The last time Mia and Mya Pauldo walked off the court at Jersey Mike’s Arena after a meaningful game, they raised their third straight NJSIAA championship trophy with Morris Catholic. The “Twin Backcourt” was at the University of Tennessee last winter, where Mia Pauldo earned a starting role. The former McDonald’s All-American and three-time Morris County Player of the Year averaged 10.4 points – best by a Vols freshman since 2017-18 – 2.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.1 steals in 23.3 minutes, and was named to the All-SEC Freshman team.
The Pauldo twins were part of a mass exodus from Knoxville, where all eight potential returning players opted for the transfer portal. They committed to Rutgers and new head coach Gary Redus II 12 days later.
“We’ve got three good players from Jersey here, and we want to keep bringing them back home,” said Redus, who has six home-state players on the Rutgers roster. “That has to be a staple for us to be successful.”
THE TWIN BACKCOURT BACK IN ACTION IN JERSEYYYY 🤩#GoRU | #RUWBBpic.twitter.com/RifSglyTzI
— Rutgers Women’s Basketball (@RutgersWBB) November 3, 2026
Mya Pauldo was named Most Valuable Player as Rutgers won gold at the FISU American Games in Lima, Peru in July. She averaged 12.2 points in the five-game tournament, scoring 16 against Argentina in the final.
“Us coming back here, it feels the same. It’s a full circle moment,” said Mya, who had six points, five rebounds and three assists. “We’re just playing at a higher level. … It was Coach Gary having confidence in me and my sister playing together. Coming back to Jersey was a perfect situation. We play better with our people here. We are what we are today because of them.”
Morris Catholic coach Rahim Huland El brought the girls basketball team to the season opener on Nov. 2, seated directly in front of the Pauldos’ four grandparents. The twins’ father, D.J. Pauldo, was also a vocal presence as usual. He and several family members have Rutgers season tickets.
It’s a big change from 10-hour drives to Knoxville. But Jeannette Wallace, the twins’ paternal grandmother, said she made it to 32 of 34 games. She had painted her nails bright red, with “2 TBC 3” on her right hand and “3 ASIA” on her left, to honor all three granddaughters.
“It’s going to look like a familiar brand of basketball, but I’m going to enjoy it a lot more,” said D.J. Pauldo, who played at Paterson Catholic and Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. “I have a vested interest as a Jersey guy. … There hasn’t been anything to watch around here. It’s a huge thing to restore that program to championship glory.”
First family of Paterson hoops
Wallace started the family’s long history with basketball in Paterson.
After finding no athletic options for girls while at Eastside High School except cheerleading or “band auxiliary,” Wallace was determined to make changes.
After graduating from William Paterson with a health and physical education degree, she came home and started coaching midget league boys basketball. Wallace worked with Moe Leftwich, the Youth and Family Services Director for the Paterson YMCA, to launch the first girls basketball program in the city. Wallace proudly recalled how her son and daughter, D.J. Pauldo and Laina Wallace, “sat on my bench watching me coach.”
D.J. and Filisha Latrell Pauldo raised five kids in Paterson, and all but the youngest, 11-year-old Dahmari, grew up focused on basketball. Daizon, the eldest, got everything started at Paterson Eastside – and in the family’s backyard after D.J. ripped up the garage to put in a court. Mia and Mya are identical-twin sophomores. Nyasia is 10 months younger, and is expected to play guard at Shaw University – her father’s alma mater – this season, after rehabbing from two ACL injuries during high school.
“I’m living this through them, because there was nothing for women to play,” said Wallace, who worked as a teacher and then the first athletic counselor at Eastside for decades. “They’re so close. I love it.”
Almost all grown up, the twins are sharing an East Brunswick apartment. A communications major, Mya is taking three in-person classes and three online.
Mya is “a tremendous cook,” according to Wallace, who sported custom Rutgers sneakers with her nickname, “MIMA” on the heels. She’s usually the one making dinner – though both twins are thrilled with the school meal plan – but it’s Mia who makes breakfast, and she usually takes out the trash too.
Long after much of the crowd had left, Mia and Mya were still signing autographs and posing for photos with friends – and people they’d never met. Aubrey Mott, a 7-year-old from Paterson, got both of them to sign her red T-shirt, saying, “Now I’m famous too.”
“I’m excited,” Mott said. “I can probably be like them to. I have to practice a lot.”
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Pauldo ‘Twin Backcourt’ celebrates NJ return with Rutgers hoops
Discover more from NAIRAVOICE.COM.NG
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
