University of South Carolina head men’s basketball coach Frank Martin announced on Monday that former Gamecock Brian Steele has returned to the program as the team’s video coordinator. Steele joins the staff after serving the past two seasons as an assistant coach at Queens University in Charlotte.
“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. “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.”
“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.”
Steele spent two of the most successful seasons in Queens University basketball history as an assistant for the program. In 2019-2020, the Royals posted a 24-7 record, winning 10 of their final 11 games, and Queens 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.
A three-year letterwinner for the Gamecocks on the hardwood (2012-15), Steele saw action in 50 career games in the Garnet and Black, with four starts. After knee injuries dotted his first three seasons on the court, Steele opted to serve as a student assistant coach during the 2015-16 campaign. He did the same during the historic 2016-17 season that saw Carolina reach the Final Four, and then was a 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. During his prep career at Wade Hampton High School in Greenville, S.C., Steele was an all-state, all-region and all-county award winner, and he helped his squad earn a state championship during his junior season.
Steele Named Men’s Basketball Video Coordinator at South Carolina
