GG Jackson gives USC basketball hope. That’s what Gamecock sports live on

Great Googlymoogly! Goodness Gracious! And as James Brown would say “Good Gawd.”

GG Jackson is a Gamecock and hopefully, in time, a Gamecock great.

The commitment of Jackson, the country’s No. 1 basketball recruit, to the University of South Carolina builds on a feeling of optimism that should be warming the hearts of Gamecock loyalists.

The Gamecocks have a rising star football coach with an equally talented quarterback. In women’s basketball, one of the best coaches in all of college sports is guiding a roster of returning champions, a key transfer and two of the country’s top young players.

Now, a 6-foot-8, sure-to-be-future NBA player kicks the University of North Carolina to the curb to grace Colonial Life Arena.

Have Gamecock fans ever had so many reasons to feel that good times are just over the horizon in three of their biggest sports?

In a single season, Gamecock football coach Shane Beamer took USC from a two-win school to seven wins and a statement victory over North Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.

During that season, graduate assistant Zeb Noland came off the sidelines and onto the field for one final season as a quarterback, and when he was hurt, third stringer and small university transfer Jason Brown came in to deliver a gargantuan win over the Florida Gators.

In the bowl victory against UNC, we saw wide receiver and sometimes quarterback Dakereon Joyner rise to the peak of his four years as a Gamecock.

The bowl culminated with fans watching Beamer get drenched in Duke’s mayonnaise. If that doesn’t give you a sense of good times to come, what will?

How about the Gamecocks snagging one of the best college quarterbacks in the country, which Beamer did with Oklahoma transfer Spencer Rattler?

Gamecock women’s basketball, with Head Coach Dawn Staley, rode its highest-winning season ever in 2021-22 to a national championship game win over the University of Connecticut.

The team claimed the championship after the previous two seasons ended in heartbreak. Because of COVID, the 2019-20 season ended without the top-ranked Gamecocks getting to a championship game — which they surely would have won. In 2020-21, they lost in the semi-finals by only a point. The bitterness of those moments enhanced the sweetness that came after this past season — and is to come again.

National player of the year Aliyah Boston had 30 double-doubles in 37 games last season. That’s insane.

Boston, the reigning college women’s player of the year, is returning along with three other starters. Two of the country’s top 20 recruits, Ashlyn Watkins and Talaysia Cooper, will also join the roster, if their verbal commitments stand, as will transfer point guard Kierra Fletcher.

Now, new USC men’s basketball coach Lamont Paris adds Jackson to the better Carolina. By doing so, Paris has injected some much needed recruiting energy into a program that couldn’t capitalize on its 2017 Final Four appearance.

Sure, Jackson is probably bouncing to the NBA after a year, and good on him if he does. Still, his impact could resonate beyond his time in garnet and black.

Future Gamecock basketball recruits will be inspired by Jackson’s commitment to USC, and equally, his decommitment from basketball powerhouse UNC. That inspiration coupled with the drive of a new men’s basketball coach bode well for the future of Gamecock men’s basketball.

Let’s not forget the lesser-heralded USC sports and athletes that nonetheless provide inspiration.

In the 2021-22 semester, the women’s soccer team made the SEC semi-finals for the third straight year. The women’s golf team also earned national accolades. Three years ago, USC’s Paul Jubb won the college singles tennis championship.

It’s not all roses, of course.

The Gamecocks baseball team is on the struggle bus. The men’s soccer team struggled to a 5-9-2 record last year under first year coach Tony Annan (while Clemson won the men’s soccer national championship). The softball team finished with a 26-26 record while winning just four SEC games.

Gamecocks fans, myself one of them, know that we have to clutch our victories close in the fleeting moments when they arrive while enduring with the good vibes that such triumphs provide.

Gamecock loyalists don’t live on wins but hope.