Pressure-free, Gamecocks are looking for the perfect game

South Carolina’s season was an unqualified success. The Gamecocks won 22 games, 12 in the SEC (the second-most in school history), had a player voted the best in the league and are in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 13 years.

Friday’s game doesn’t change that success.

It just seems like it determines so much more.

If the Gamecocks lose to Marquette, it’s the continuation of a sour end to a really good year. USC will have dropped six of eight to finish the season and, while successful, will have that tag of “the one that got away.”

If they win, it’s another foothold in Frank Martin’s program construction, and another point he can sell to recruits. Everybody watches the NCAA Tournament and will know USC won a game, and that they can be the player that helps them win another game in the future.

Plus it breaks that notorious streak of 44 years, zero tournament wins. That’s the one that’s already stapled to this team despite none of them having anything to do with it.

“We were aware and we had (longtime equipment manager Mac Credille) come talk to us,” SEC Player of the Year Sindarius Thornwell said. “And he came and talked to us and told us how much it means for him for us to just make the tournament and how much it would mean for him to just, for us to win that first game. It would mean so much for him and for us and our relationship with Mac.”

It’s part of every athletics program’s history that you’re held responsible for what previous teams did or didn’t accomplish, but USC basketball seems to really harp on that point. It’s why nobody can really get excited for an NIT season anymore, because after the Gamecocks won back-to-back NIT championships, there’s a feeling of “been there, done that.”

If USC adds to that NCAA streak this year, the season will be viewed by some as a failure, despite the overwhelming evidence that it’s anything but.

“You go back and you think of some of the guys that have played at South Carolina, the incredible coaches that have coached at South Carolina over those 44 years, I think it's remarkable,” coach Frank Martin said. “It's one of those stats that you're like, ‘How is that happening?’ ”

USC had a marvelous season that was tested down the stretch, the Gamecocks not able to come up with that extra oomph needed to win a few more games. Their defense, once one of the nastiest in the country, lessened and their offense, not that strong to start with, began being exposed.

All of that’s forgotten. The Gamecocks are in the NCAA Tournament. None of the struggles, the problems, the pressure is with them.

Go out and play like it, and the 44 years ends as well.

“To be able to accomplish that, I think would soothe a lot of people,” Martin said. “It would make a lot of people smile.”

This story was originally published March 16, 2017 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Pressure-free, Gamecocks are looking for the perfect game."