A familiar face has returned to the Gamecock men's basketball program.
Former guard Brian Steele has joined the Frank Martin staff as video coordinator. He spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach at Queens University in Charlotte, a Division II school in the South Atlantic Conference.
"Having Brian Steele back around our program is going to be a tremendous opportunity for our players to be around someone who lived the building of this program and was a strong personality in character that created the foundation of this program," Martin said in a statement.
"We're going to miss Jay Gibbons and everything he brought to our team and wish him well as he has accepted a coaching opportunity in Atlanta. When he made the decision to leave, we could not have found a more committed person than Brian. And when you add how much he has grown over the last three years, he is going to be a tremendous asset to our staff."
Steele played for the Gamecocks from 2012-2015, seeing action in 50 career games and making four starts. After battling knee injuries during his first three seasons, Steele was a student assistant coach during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons before moving into a role as graduate assistant manager the following year. He was a three-time SEC Academic Honor roll member and was named to the NABC Honors Court during his career before he earned his degree in sport and entertainment management in May 2016.
"I'm unbelievably excited about the opportunity to come back home and compete for championships," Steele said.
"This program means so much to me and to be able to come back and be a part of this team again is special."
In Steele's two years at Queens, he was a part of two of the most successful seasons in that program's history. In 2019-2020, the Royals posted a 24-7 record and finished in the top 25 in both major national polls (NCAA D-II) for the fifth-straight season. During the 2018-2019 campaign, Queens went 31-5, won the South Atlantic Conference regular season championship by five games and repeated as Southeast Regional champions to advance to the Elite Eight for the second consecutive season.
Steele is a former player at Wade Hampton in Greenville where he won a state championship in his junior season.
