Devan Downey happy to be appreciated for his effort

He’ll always regret missing the NCAA tournament.

He doesn’t regret choosing South Carolina.

“I just wanted to come home and be a big-time player for my home state,” Devan Downey said. “A lot of times in the past, this school had missed out on a lot of the top guys in the state, and they missed out on me initially. I wanted to be a building block.”

Downey, a three-time first-team All-SEC selection, the Gamecocks’ career leader in steals and fourth-leading scorer, spoke Thursday during his induction into USC’s Athletic Hall of Fame. Downey had to travel much farther than the short drive from his native Chester to Columbia to find what he really wanted – that Columbia was home all along.

A lauded recruit, Downey committed to Cincinnati early. USC didn’t have much of a chance after Bob Huggins had wowed Downey, and his first season with the Bearcats was exactly what he’d said it would be – an announcement that an undersized kid from South Carolina was a whole lot better than most everybody on the floor.

But Downey’s mind had already started to change. He never played for Huggins after the coach was told to either resign or be fired, and his one season was spent under an up-and-coming assistant named Andy Kennedy. The other assistants, including Frank Martin, each saw how special Downey was and that the coaching change had affected him.

Downey decided to transfer and the coaching staff splintered as well. Each was tugging him – Huggins and Martin landed at Kansas State, Kennedy went to Ole Miss. Martin swears to this day that had Downey visited K-State, he would have been a Wildcat.

But Downey, after visiting Kennedy and the Rebels, wrapped a visit to Dave Odom and Columbia and pledged to be a Gamecock.

After his transfer year, Downey sparkled for three consecutive seasons. While he never got to the biggest tournament, he helped bring home an SEC East championship, the Gamecocks’ second and last. The Hall of Fame seemed a lock, and Downey allowed himself to think of it one day – but a short five years later?

“Can you get in any faster?,” Downey said. “I definitely was surprised.”

Martin told him on the phone, and Downey’s eyes filled. Surrounded by his Chester family on Thursday, he spoke of how he played every game with everything he had. He felt he owed that.

“Since I was a young man playing the game, I always said I wanted to give it my all,” Downey said. “Don’t hold anything back. I’m just glad they appreciated it.”

It seemed to be a theme. Another of Chester’s finest, Sheldon Brown, was also inducted on Thursday. What’s in the water up there?

“Let’s face it,” said Brown, an All-American cornerback who prepped at Lewisville High. “There’s nothing else to do.”

Many who spoke to Downey recalled his brilliance in the Gamecocks’ upset of No. 1 Kentucky, but Downey’s favorite game was the incredible comeback against Florida. “The game was over,” Downey said. “Over.”

Yet Mike Holmes rebounded a missed free throw and as he was coming down, spied Zam Fredrick streaking downcourt. Holmes landed with his arm already cocked, threw a cross-court pass, Fredrick ran under it and laid it in at the buzzer.

Downey has played overseas for five years, and won three professional titles. He won last year in Qatar, and will leave in mid-October for Dubai. A Columbia resident, Downey spends as much time as possible with his daughter, and helps out USC’s current basketball players as much as he can.

He didn’t start at USC, but he finished as a great. He wants more greats to hear how much USC meant to him.

“They made me who I am today,” he said. “Not just a basketball player, but the man I am today.”

This story was originally published September 10, 2015 at 10:01 PM with the headline "Devan Downey happy to be appreciated for his effort."