The Final Four was supposed to begin today, April 3, and barring a massive upset, the Gamecocks would have played tonight with a chance to advance to the championship game. While this season will always have an asterisk because it was incomplete, throughout the season the Gamecocks made incredible memories for others.

In the past, Dawn Staley has referred to herself as a “dream merchant.” Her goal, she has said, is to use basketball to help other people achieve their dreams. Usually, that means helping young players. She helps them win and have successful college careers, preparing them for professional careers, or if that doesn’t pan out, coaching. She tries to help them become better people and citizens.

What Staley doesn’t talk about is how her role as a dream merchant extends beyond her players. She uses basketball and the platform the sport has provided her to make a difference in big and small ways.

Through her Innersole foundation, Staley has provided shoes for South Carolina elementary children for years, with little fanfare. Staley has shunned attention for her work, even though her name and reputation would only help her cause. A few years ago I was working on a local morning show, and Innersoul asked to have someone on. We asked if Staley would be coming, because we could promote that and help both sides out. The response was that Staley wouldn’t come on because she didn’t want to make it about her.

Anyone who follows Staley on Twitter has seen the tweets from the “FAMs” about how much this game or that game means to someone. There was this family that used the UConn game to remember their late father.

There was another family that tried to make every game after Staley quietly reached out with a note of encouragement for a man battling cancer.

That spirit of community has been adopted by the players. Zia Cooke’s family recently arranged through Staley to donate supplies to Senior Resources to be distributed to senior citizens who are unable to leave their homes during the coronavirus pandemic.

We typically refer to these sorts of activities as off-court, as though they have nothing to do with basketball. But the two most important moments of the season came literally on the court.

The first was in December, when the Gamecocks held a teddy bear toss at halftime of the game against Duke. The idea was suggested on Twitter (where else?) and eventually involved multiple programs around the country. South Carolina hoped to gather a few hundred bears to distribute, instead, they collected 2,046 teddy bears, dogs, llamas, bunnies, and dinosaurs They rained down on the court for nearly two minutes. Players made snow angels. Destanni Henderson found a bear bigger than herself. Zia Cooke threw some back into the stands. There were so many bears that they couldn’t give them all away immediately. It was a touching and incredible case of a community doing something good. “It was something unexplainable,” LeLe Grissett said. “You just know this is a family.”

Even after the team hand delivered the bears to Prisma Health Children’s Hospital and sent some home with Duke, there were still bags of bears by the loading dock at Colonial Life Arena. They were still giving bears away in March at the SEC Tournament.

The second came against Texas A&M, in front of a sellout crowd for the season finale. Shawn Kiser, a Chapin native, walked across the court. Kiser’s husband was killed and she lost her leg when their family’s boat was hit by an alleged drunk boater. Kiser is a Gamecock fan, and in January Staley surprised Kiser at her physical therapy. Staley has encouraged Kiser and offered support throughout her difficult rehabilitation, which included learning to walk on a prosthetic leg. During that meeting, Staley set a goal for Kiser that at halftime of the Texas A&M game they would walk the court together.

The challenge inspired Kiser to continue to work at her rehab, and when that day came, Staley said, “She was walking faster than I could walk!”

None of this replaces a national championship. But for the people helped - a stuffed animal for a sick child, a note for a sick person, a distraction from grief, or a few steps - that doesn’t matter, and it’s what being a dream merchant is about.