Gamecock basketball royalty to be honored Monday

It could have been so different.

BJ McKie and fellow prep All-American Vince Carter were buddies. They met while playing for a select team in Germany and Carter, from Florida, and McKie, from Irmo, talked a lot.

“Me and Vince talked about going in as a tandem together,” McKie said. “We were talking about Florida at the time, they had just come off a Final Four trip (in 1994) and had a great team.

“Vince was like, “I think we should go in as a package deal … think about it.’”

Carter, the high-flying guard-forward and acrobatic dunker, with McKie, an intelligent, court-savvy guard who could become a lethal scorer any time he was asked. That Gators backcourt could have been the best in SEC history.

But it’s one that will remain a conversation around the checkerboard, to be debated by the historians as another “what if” scenario. McKie mulled it over, called Carter and told him he was intrigued, but had his heart set on staying home.

“At that time, I was more for South Carolina,” McKie said. “Coach (Eddie) Fogler did a great job of building a relationship, and he and (the late Neil Dougherty) did a great job of recruiting me. They just kind of grew on me.”

After four years, McKie definitely grew on the Gamecocks. He ushered in some of the program’s most successful years, and departed as its all-time leading scorer. Those accomplishments will be recognized Monday night when he’s inducted into the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame.

“It’s a great feeling,” McKie said. “So much of it I owe to everybody through the whole process, my mom and dad, my wife, my son, my family and former coaches and friends along the way who have helped me.

“Everybody who sacrificed for me, that’s what I think about ultimately. You don’t do it on your own.”

Fogler’s securing of the McDonald’s All-American in his backyard gave his project quite a few bricks on top of the foundation. After two struggling seasons, freshman McKie merged with two other homegrown products, Larry Davis (who transferred from North Carolina) and Melvin Watson, to form a dynamic guard trio.

After winning SEC Rookie of the Year, McKie teamed with Davis and Watson in 1996-97 as first-team AP All-SEC honorees, guiding the Gamecocks to a season still proudly remembered. USC rose from the ashes of a 5-5 start to take the SEC by storm, winning the only SEC title in program history and claiming the first SEC championship for the school since joining the league.

USC made back-to-back NCAA Tournaments in McKie’s sophomore and junior years before a rough senior campaign. The 1998-99 Gamecocks managed a mere eight wins, although McKie sponsored one of the season’s, and the program’s, brightest spots.

On Jan. 30, 1999, while hosting Vanderbilt, McKie drove from the left wing, cut through the lane and laid the ball into the hole. That was the basket everyone hoped to see, pushing him past Alex English’s top career total of 1,972 points.

He finished with 2,119 and his No. 3 has been retired and placed in the rafters. Many honors have come his way since, but this one feels a bit more special – McKie’s legacy lives on at USC as his son, Justin, prepares to begin his senior season. He estimated 55-70 family members will attend Monday’s ceremony.

“McKie Nation is pretty large,” McKie said.

The crowds at Carolina Coliseum from 1995-99 agree.

This story was originally published May 15, 2016 at 8:33 PM with the headline "Gamecock basketball royalty to be honored Monday."