Can P.J. Dozier live up to the hype?

It’s a dangerous word, “hype.” Especially in athletics, that word often has tags attached to it that can destroy a career before it starts.

“He’s overhyped.” “She doesn’t get the hype she deserves.” “That team is ridiculously hyped.” We hear it all the time, and usually not in a good way. We bring it up when a player or team is supposed to be magnificent, an expectation that we come up with based on past athletic accomplishments, and if they fail to reach our expectations, well, they “weren’t worth the hype.”

So here’s P.J. Dozier, freshman guard at South Carolina, and he’s already one of the most hyped players in school history. The credentials speak for themselves – McDonald’s All-American Game starter, consensus Top-40 prospect, South Carolina Mr. Basketball, veteran of USA Basketball training camps. The bloodlines follow – father Perry Dozier, uncle Terry Dozier and sister Asia Dozier were or are Gamecocks.

Is he going to live up to the hype?

Ask 100 Magic 8-Balls and receive 100 different answers. There’s no result until Dozier finishes his collegiate career. And his friends, teammates and coaches aren’t talking hype to him – they know he’s a phenomenal player who may go through the same growing pains scores of freshmen do. They’re simply telling him to be himself.

Hype? That’s for the rest of the world to embrace and discuss.

Dozier just wants to play basketball.

At which he is quite proficient.

“He’s a sponge. He learns, he wants to do things,” coach Frank Martin said. “The harder it gets, the more engaged he gets. He won’t come off the court.”

Early returns have Dozier battling Marcus Stroman at point guard, a move that lets Sindarius Thornwell be a scorer instead of a part-time ball-handler and moves Duane Notice to permanent two-guard. Martin has already marveled at how the ball is on a yo-yo string to Dozier’s palms – a 6-foot-6 floor leader who can score as well as distribute is a vital commodity.

His preseason debut wasn’t grand – a mere 3-of-13 from the field for seven points, four assists, two steals and six turnovers – causing Thornwell to tease him about why he’s shooting so much if he’s a passing point guard. Martin brushed it off as nerves – it was his first game. He’ll settle down.

“I don’t think anybody can really mess him up. He’s just so calm,” Stroman said. “I tell him, ‘Being a freshman, you’re going to have bad days, but you always got to remember, there’s another day and another game.’”

The talent is evident and the accolades have been impressive. It’s best that Dozier chose to stay home, pledging to the Gamecocks over Michigan, North Carolina, Georgetown and Louisville. Only here does he get constant reminders that he has to earn his stars.

“I think he got the majority of his hype at a younger age, and that was probably the least skillful I saw him as being,” says Asia Dozier, a senior on USC’s No. 2 women’s basketball team who knows about dealing with tremendous prep accomplishments. “I knew he was good, but watching him develop as a player, and even more so as a point guard, has kind of been shocking to me.”

Asia was Miss Basketball and a four-star prospect, and while she hasn’t been the scorer she was at Spring Valley High, there is nobody at USC the past four years who wanted her to be anything else than what she’s been. Dependable, sturdy, a starter who does the little things on the court – Asia has been as big a part of the Gamecocks’ rise as the All-American candidates have.

She knows about hype, talks about it to her brother and has seen no case of constant awareness from him. He doesn’t try to act bigger than he is.

“We talk a lot … he thinks he lives in my room,” Asia said. “I probably see him more now than I did when we were living under the same roof. He’s a freshman, so he had to adjust the school workload, time management and balance, being tired and still being able to work hard. He’s done a pretty good job.”

All Martin has seen is competitiveness. He’s not telling Dozier that he has to be the starting point guard (which he eventually will be) or a take-over scorer (which he is certainly capable of being). He’s learning as much from Dozier as Dozier is from him.

“He cramped up two hours into practice,” Martin said. “He went out, I turned around and he’s back in practice. That shows me how much he cares and how much he’s listening to the upperclassmen. As a McDonald’s All-American, for him to be humble and as committed as he is, the sky’s the limit for him.”

Engaged. Talented. Dedicated. Respectful. Those terms and many more describe what USC has.

The hype from his younger days will always follow. Dozier ignores it, as do the friends and family around him. They know how good he is and how good he can be.

The Gamecocks know they got an outstanding young player. If folks eventually tag him as not worth the hype, they’ll drop them a line from the winning locker room.

This story was originally published November 14, 2015 at 11:11 PM with the headline "Can P.J. Dozier live up to the hype?."