The Double Edge Sword Of March Madness

South Carolina's men's basketball team will face a former player in today's game, pulling back the curtain on a cruel reality of the NCAA Tournament.

South Carolina's men's basketball team will face a former player in today's game, pulling back the curtain on a cruel reality of the NCAA Tournament.

When basketball fans talk about the NCAA Tournament, whether they're sickos who watch West Coast Conference basketball into the wee hours of the morning or people who only follow the sport when the postseason rolls around, the feeling is universal: there's something magical about March. However, in today's first-round game between Lamont Paris' South Carolina Gamecocks and the Oregon Ducks, there will be an awkward feeling between some players and even amongst some fans.

The reason for this awkwardness is that the Gamecocks will have to face Oregon's fifth-year senior guard Jermaine Cousinard, who played for South Carolina from 2019 to 2022 under then-head coach Frank Martin. While only two current Carolina players remain from the Martin era, Jacobi Wright and Josh Gray, the idea of having to effectively end the college career of a former teammate so that their tournament dreams can continue is likely one that's hard to stomach.

Jermaine Cousinard guarding Volunteer guard Santiago Vescovi (11th Jan., 2020) / Calvin Mattheis | Knoxville News-Sentinel

In this new era of the transfer portal, this'll likely become more of a regular occurrence, with mid-major stars moving up to the Power 5 level in order to get more regional and national exposure (ala Tennessee's Dalton Knecht), and some leaving one high-major program for another who believe will fit their skillset better. All-in-all, no rational thinking person can blame Jermaine for leaving Columbia, as he signed up to play for Frank Martin, not for Lamont Paris, but for how much we talk about dreams turning into reality in March Madness, for one person or some people today, he or they will be living out a bad dream. Not all stories end happily, and that will be the case today at the PPG Arena in Pittsburgh, PA.

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