Frank Martin knew he had a decision to make.

In June, Bruce Shingler informed Martin he was going to be taking an assistant job at Maryland and Martin would now have to fill a vacancy on his staff.

He went home that night and began to think about it, only to have the realization his next on-court assistant was already in the building with Brian Steele.

“I always got guys in the back of my mind. I went home and started thinking about which one to call. I thought to myself, ‘Brian’s going to be a star in this business and he knows me. Why wouldn’t I just do this?’” Martin said.

“I grabbed Scott Greenawalt and said, ‘Scott, what do you think of this?’ and he said I’d be crazy not to do it. That’s what I thought. I called Brian and made it happen. I’m ecstatic about it. He’s going to make us a better team.”

The process happened quickly with Steele being approached about it and taking the job within 72 hours as the Gamecocks’ newest assistant coach.

Steele has grown into his role almost exclusively at South Carolina, playing for the Gamecocks in the mid-2010s and serving as a student and graduate assistant on Martin’s staff, including being on staff for the 2017 Final Four season.

He left to serve as an assistant coach at Queens, where he got his first taste of recruiting as an assistant, before coming back before the 2020 season as the team’s video coordinator.

It was a massive win getting Steele back to Columbia, Martin said, to get some of the culture from those 2016 and 2017 teams injected back onto the staff.

“When we built our program, he was a big part of the shoulders we built our program on as a player then as a student assistant,” Martin said. “When we lost him when he went to Queens, we lost some of that personality because he’s unbelievable that way. That’s why when we brought him back as a video guy I was so excited.”

Since officially taking the job in June, Steele’s been able to work with the current Gamecocks but his biggest role this summer has been on recruiting.

He’s been on the trail evaluating prospects and bringing players on campus for visits with a specific focus on recruiting in South Carolina.

“I played by AAU basketball, high school basketball in this state,” Steele said. “A lot of my coaches are still in the community coaching high school, coaching AAU basketball. Running into everybody is awesome man. It brings me joy. I love recruiting in this state, and that’s going to be one of my priorities, getting after South Carolina kids.”

Steele was already one of the lead recruiters for the Gamecocks’ lone 2022 commitment at the moment in Zach Davis, who committed on an unofficial visit in late June.

Steele, who played basketball at Wade Hampton High School in South Carolina, is able to provide a unique perspective of being an in-state prospect who also played at South Carolina and was part of some of the program’s best teams ever.

“There’s not a question they can ask that I can’t answer and answer honestly,” Steele said. “I have a great relationship with Frank and feel comfortable recruiting players he wants. I know what he wants and been around good teams we’ve had here. It puts me at an advantage being an alumni and being able to sell every part, not just the basketball but the academics, the campus, the city and the state."

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