Turn on your radio for South Carolina Women’s Basketball’s regular season finale against Tennessee Sunday afternoon, and you will hear the same sounds as always.

Brad Muller, the steady, guiding narrator for the golden era of Gamecock basketball, describing the action as he has for 17 seasons. Muller’s blend of basketball understanding, a quick cadence perfect for the sport and a passion for his alma mater has made him a fan favorite for years.

Now he has company.

Less than 365 days after finishing her career playing for Dawn Staley’s team, Olivia Thompson is back in Colonial Life Arena helping Muller as a color commentator.

“She expressed an interest before the season started about maybe sitting in and listening and maybe seeing if she could sit in for some games as an analyst or something,” Muller told GamecockScoop. “I tried to prep her a little bit for what the expectation was. Do you want to just listen, or do you want to talk? She was like, ‘No, I want to do the whole thing.’”

Thompson started at South Carolina as a walk-on, earning a scholarship before the 2020-21 season. She did not play much, but was part of three straight Final Four teams and won a National Championship in 2022. The self-proclaimed “adrenaline junkie” craved the thrill of gameday, loved her teammates and always searched for any way to help the program. The same goals persist.

“It’s always great when our players can come back and contribute in any way around our program, around our sport, around this university,” Staley said. “This is where they made the most transformational time of their lives. If they can come back and contribute in other ways, it’s only a great thing.”

It takes an intense desire, effort and love for the game to earn a scholarship as a walk-on. There is a unique buzz from playing in a Final Four or hearing 18,000 fans scream during intros only an athlete can fully understand.

Those flames do not just burn out when the eligibility clock hits zero.

“I always just loved watching basketball and listening to commentators,” Thompson told GamecockScoop. “Good commentators and good color commentators really can make the experience really fun, so I thought it would be a cool thing to do once I graduated to come back.”

Right now, the role is small; just getting a taste of it during the last three home games of the regular season. It started on Feb. 18 when the Gamecocks beat Georgia in front of a sellout crowd for College GameDay, and four days later she had the microphone when a team still including six of her former teammates clinched an eighth SEC regular season title in 11 seasons.

Her new position straddles the line between being an adjustment — Thompson had never called basketball before the Georgia game — and a return to the familiarity of her last four years taking in a South Carolina game. There was nothing new about a gameday, but this vantage point created first-game jitters all over again.

“I was nervous at first,” Thompson said. “I was kind of hesitant to chime in sometimes, and as the game continued I got much more comfortable. When I did the game against Alabama I got much more comfortable.”

At its core, this is a teaching role. Millions of people watch and listen to Gamecock basketball, but few have ever been inside a Staley huddle, shared a locker room with Raven Johnson or been on a court with Kamilla Cardoso.

Even with over 500 games under his belt and an encyclopedic knowledge of the program, Muller still gains something fresh via Thompson.

“I just said keep it simple,” he said. “Just talk about what you know about this team and this program and what you know about basketball. I thought she did a very good job on the first game she did in doing just that, and then she came in for the second game and just did a little bit more of that.”

Almost any scenario a basketball game could present, there is an answer. A big run, a slow stretch of shooting, an in-game adjustment, anything. She has been through it, and been through it in garnet and black. She came off the bench 80 times as a Gamecock, and four years of scraping the highest rungs of the ladder college basketball can offer created a seasoned veteran.

The in-game processing speed never evaporates. She knows how much is bouncing around her head, and is eager to break off a piece of the pie for her listening audience.

“Brad will ask me, ‘Okay what is coach Staley telling the team at halftime?’” Thompson said. “And I get to talk about things she would be saying at this time, things she’s told us. I think it’s just great to be able to share what I’ve heard and what I’ve seen outside what they can see with their eyes. I have first-hand knowledge of this team, and it’s nice to be able to share that with them.”

Gone are the days when Staley had Thompson’s energy and support on her bench. But it will still be in the building when she looks across the way Sunday.

"It’s fun to see this team having fun and doing well and getting to stay involved with them honestly,” Thompson said. “I’ve really, really enjoyed it.

The former player loves this ride just as much as the current ones.

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