There is a great documentary film called “20 Feet from Stardom.” It’s about singers who have rarely if ever had a hit on their own, but are so talented that they are in demand as backup singers for other artists. They are the singers on stage off to the side or behind the lead singer, out of the spotlight, making the lead singer sound good but never drawing away the attention, people who have carved out a lucrative, successful career even if nobody knows their names.

That’s Brea Beal. She doesn’t get the spotlight, but she’s somewhere right beside it (although much closer than 20 feet). She’s the one that guards the other team’s best player. She’s the one whose job sometimes requires her to sacrifice her own abilities so that her teammates can be the lead singer.

There is a small militia on Twitter that is dedicated to getting Beal to transfer. They insist she’s unhappy, that she should be scoring 20 points a game for another team, that she’s not good enough. Nevermind that these are contradictory statements, or that they aren’t true. Well, two of the three, anyway. Beal could certainly be scoring 20 points a game somewhere. She was a three-time Ms. Basketball in Illinois who averaged 26 points per game as a senior. She can shoot, she can drive, she can post up. She scored 17 and 22 points in back to back games in January. But that’s not her role.

“I feel like sometimes it can get confusing what your role is early in the season and you figure it out as the season goes on,” she said. “For me it’s being the glue. I don’t have to score.”

Beal figured out her role pretty quickly as a freshman. In her second career game, she shut down Maryland star Kaila Charles. Then there was a month-long stretch that saw her shut down the best players for Washington State, Purdue, Duke, and South Dakota. Her coup de grace came in South Carolina’s statement win over Kentucky. Rhyne Howard was supposed to run wild over the Gamecocks, Instead she was thoroughly outplayed by Beal, to the point that in the second half Kentucky had to move Howard to another position to get her away from Beal.

Outside the program, Beal doesn’t get the credit she deserves. After all, if you defend the other team’s best scorer, you are going to give up some points. But within the team, Beal is recognized as one of the most important players.

“You can’t function as a team if people don’t accept their roles,” Dawn Staley said. “A lot of times, nobody wants the role that Brea Beal plays for us. That is lock down our opponent’s best offensive guard, sometimes that is sacrificing your shot for a better shot, sometimes that is just being a decoy and being a screener. Nobody wants that.”

“Brea is a great defender,” said Aliyah Boston, one of the stars Beal sacrifices to support. “Brea does all the little things. She boxes out, she gets rebounds. She helps us to push and we’re able to take advantage of her when smaller guards are on her. She does everything we need her to do.”

Beal probably expected to be more involved in the offense this season, after the departures of Tyasha Harris and Mikiah Herbert Harrigan. That hasn’t happened, but Beal’s importance has become more obvious. When she plays well, the Gamecocks play well. It could be grabbing 11 rebounds against Oregon State. It could be scoring 22 points against Arkansas, or seven crucial points in the SEC tournament against Georgia. It could be playing all 45 minutes against UConn. Or the thankless job of going against the other team’s best scorer.

Beal’s role isn’t a new one. It is reminiscent of what Allisha Gray did. Gray was the glue player on the 2017 national championship team. She was called on to defend, rebound, score, whatever was needed, especially after Alaina Coates’ injury.

Beal and Gray aren’t quite the same. Beal is bigger and more athletic. Gray was a better shooter and more refined offensively. As such, Beal has more defensive responsibility and Gray had more offensive responsibility.

Now Beal has a chance to follow in Gray’s footsteps with a big game in the Final Four against Stanford. Gray had a game-high 18 points and eight rebounds in 2017. Beal will likely be tasked with guarding Haley Jones, Stanford’s best, most versatile player. Jones was the top ranked recruit in the 2019 class (the Gamecocks were one of her finalists. Could you imagine adding her to the class?). Her freshman season was cut short by a knee injury, but Jones bounced back to average 12.7 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game.

“Haley Jones wears many hats for Stanford that impact the game,” Staley said. “Her ability to play one through four, her ability to score, her ability to make basketball plays, her ability to be an unselfish player who sometimes gives up a good shot for a better shot, it’s felt.”

Tara VanDerveer went another step, saying Jones could play the five.

“The thing about Haley is she has great vision,” VanDerveer said. “She likes to handle the ball. She’s like Magic Johnson. She can play one through five. Part of her skill set is not just her physical skill set, her ability to recognize what position she’s in, know different plays at different positions, her passing ability, her ability to score inside and out. This is the future of our game and she’s kind of the leader of that future.”

Beal has slowed down elite players in the past, but between Jones’ versatility and what is at stake this is probably her biggest test, and the Gamecocks need another big game from their glue girl to pull off the upset.