I came here on a promise. Not a spoken one. Not a contracted one, all signed and professional. Not even one made over a dinner table, ending in a head nod and a firm hand shake.
This promise wasn’t made between me and another person, but instead between me and this institution. This school, the University of South Carolina, flooded me with pictures of students going crazy at football games. I was brought back to the glory of 2011 and made to feel as if this was the year that it would be achieved again. Between Steve Spurrier and Pharoh Cooper, I was told that this year was going to be special. Upon making my decision, I felt like a promise had been made, that if I came here then I would be a part of something great. And this promise is being fulfilled in the most unexpected of ways: by a man named Frank Martin and the team that has forever been overshadowed and underappreciated.
It’s pretty apparent that our school is a football school. It seems that all other men’s sports seem to rest in its shadow. Of course, sometimes a team will find a way to obtain some of the public's eye, but it’s normally short-lived: a quick fad that inevitably falls back beneath the shadow as football season looms again.
But this year is different. The football team disappointed, leaving Gamecock fans searching for something, anything, to hang their hats on and proudly claim to be theirs. And in the men’s basketball team, they got it.
Don’t get me wrong, this will forever be a football school. One down year in football and one outstanding start to basketball will not change the very image of this school. Pictures of Spurrier will be replaced with those of Will Muschamp, a new star will arise and Williams-Brice will still be filled to capacity. But in Martin’s team, a seemingly lost year in Gamecock sports was given new life. It once again has put us in the public eye for our accomplishments. No longer do we have to shuffle around questions about our ex-coach’s nationally televised resignation. We can just point to our basketball team's record and say that we’ve already forgotten about the football season altogether; we are on to better things.
In a football season when being “proud to be a Gamecock” was truly put to the test, basketball has saved the day. It may be unexpected, but as the men's basketball team is one of only two undefeated teams in the country, Gamecock fans definitely have something to be proud of. It may be in a way that no one predicted, but the promise of athletic greatness is being fulfilled. The season may only be halfway through, but already what we are witnessing is special.