Hyber: Gamecocks, FAMS suffer most from NCAA decisions

No one will miss NCAA experience more than South Carolina, FAMS By Josh Hyber | Staff writer T here were no buzzer beaters, 12-over5 upsets or doubledigit Cinderellas advancing to the Elite Eight this year. No Sister Jean or UMBC knocking off Virginia.

In 2020 there was not even one singular shining moment. Not even one bounce of a basketball.

Before Selection Sunday, it had already been the maddest March of them all.

On March 12, the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments were canceled because of concerns over the COVID-19 Coronavirus.

No team likely felt more disappointment from the startling development than South Carolina, which was slated to enter the women’s tournament as the top national seed and favorite to win a second national championship. "As competitors, we are certainly disappointed,” head coach Dawn Staley said. “That said, it will not diminish the way we look at our season, how we value our body of work over the last four months. We have measured ourselves against the best in the country over that time and will embrace and relish that accomplishment.” "For our seniors and the others throughout the country who will not have the chance to finish their careers the way they expected to, that's a tougher, more emotional thing to process.”

“My heart is super heavy knowing that I will no longer sign another autograph or take another picture as a Gamecock,” senior Ty Harris tweeted. “I will no longer step on CLA’s court and play with my sisters. These four years have flown & I’m forever thankful for the love that the FAMS show me. Thank U”

The Gamecocks were backed this season — and for the past several years —by its rabid FAMbase, which would have followed them through the NCAA Tournament.

South Carolina was 32-1, winning by an average 26.2 points per game entering the big dance. It was 11-1 against ranked teams. Because of its No. 1 seed, it would have likely played two home games to start the tournament and then advance to the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games in Greenville, S.C. — 103 miles from its home in Columbia — where it just had a brilliant turnout for the SEC Tournament.

Staley said after the team’s tournament win that its fans worked “equally as hard.”

“Coming into this building, all weekend long, spending their hard-earned money. I hope it’s worth it. I hope whatever they had to dish out was worth it with the excitement they brought in the building,” she said.

“They allowed us to win this championship.”

How much can fans really help a team that won all but three games by double digits at Colonial Life Arena?

A lot, according to players.

“I mean, they basically took over the whole arena,” Mikiah Herbert Harrigan said at the SEC Tournament. “The energy they provide for us, it’s good, and we love it.”

While health and safety are of utmost importance, it’s a shame South Carolina players and fans couldn’t experience March — and April — in all its glory.

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