Media's uncontrolled hype not doing Gamecocks' Dawn Staley any favors

Basketball season is yet to start, and Columbia's other liberal newspaper, The Free Times, declares

It is rare indeed for local media to
bestow so much hype on a
Gamecocks sports team. Dawn
Staley should be wary. 

USC Womens Basketball Team is ready for the Final Four.

The other newspaper, The State, says: “This year’s Gamecocks worth the wait for Dawn Staley?”

Did I fall asleep, only to wake up in a fair-media sports town?

The State pumping up a Gamecock sports team? How bizarre is that? Isn't The State always laughing at USC for having high hopes? 

For years columnists at The State, in mid-August, mocked USC fans with a “Hope Springs Eternal” epitaph, as if fans are ridiculous to hope for gridiron wins.

So what gives now?

A suddenly cheerleading sports reporter for The State said: “ I honestly don’t think that even (Staley,) as competitive a person as I’ve ever known, would have dreamed she’d have this kind of talent on one team.”

This is a newspaper that has a columnist named Ron Morris compare Football Coach Steve Spurrier to a child rape cover-up at Penn St. because Spurrier used a basketball player for football. That player is now in the NFL.

The Free Times – that wrung its hands over the declining number of Black MLB players – is now expert about wins and losses.

Free Times' Chris Trainor, in its ode to Staley, fawns over Staley's jet-black hair and point-guard hands like an awe-struck school girl.

Trainor proclaims the Lady Gamecocks (that seem to be stuck at the Sweet 16) are now a “bona fide national power.”

That's strange since Columbia media has an across-the-board edict that declares it unprofessional to say anything positive about the local program. 

Even as Spurrier produced one of the winningest programs in the nation in the last four years, it is taboo to give him credit for that.

You have to pull for Staley because she is likable and a very good basketball coach. But should the media be so giddy, and sure Staley will reach hoops nirvana?

Susan Walvius, Staley's predecessor, took the Gamecocks to the Elite Eight for the first time – and only time- in school history without nearly the fanfare or talent Staley is said to have.

The local media, no matter how hopeful it suddenly is for a USC program, is doing nothing but setting a very high standard. The same was done last year, and the Lady Gs did not meet the expectations.

No matter how much the media has attached itself to Staley's success, is it not doing her any favors by declaring such success before even one official game is played.

Basketball season is long, with lots of obstacles and competition. Just because the media so wants something to be true, to act as if already is, is folly, for sure.

Let's hope Staley ignores the “experts” who are acting as if she already has. Staley will have to be totally focused on her job, and hope for some luck, to get to where the media has already placed her.