USC’s Final Four coaches ‘blowing the top off this thing,’ SC governor says

S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster plugged his alma mater’s basketball teams and the Palmetto State on sports television, not long before the Gamecocks women’s basketball team and Stanford tip-off in the NCAA Women’s Final Four Friday night.

McMaster had a 12-minute interview on the Paul Finebaum show on the SEC Sports Network. The Richland Republican said both University of South Carolina’s basketball teams reaching the Final Four was a sign of the state’s excellence.

“Dawn Staley and Frank Martin are just blowing the top off of this thing,” he said of the teams’ coaches.

“This is one of the most exciting times I’ve ever seen in this state,” McMaster added, noting the USC men and women’s basketball teams’ tournament success, Clemson University’s national football championship and Coastal Carolina’s national baseball championship.

“If we go all the way ... I’m confident there’s no other state that has had this many accomplishments at one time,” he said.

But, McMaster said, the sports teams’ success, “transcends” athletics, “because it puts us on the map ... and it just makes life better.”

This story was originally published March 31, 2017 at 6:17 PM with the headline "USC’s Final Four coaches ‘blowing the top off this thing,’ SC governor says."