NEW YORK -- Every day someone would pose some version of the same question to PJ Dozier.
Why on earth was he going to South Carolina?
This despite the fact that Dozier lives not only in the state, but resides in Columbia, where the university is located.
It was not an unfair query. Dozier, after all, was a fifth-grade prodigy turned McDonald's All-American, the rare elementary schooler rated the best at his age who actually lived up to his own billing. He could have gone anywhere. And as quaint as the notion to stay at home seemed, it also seemed a little crazy.
They said the same thing to Sindarius Thornwell a few years earlier. Even though Thornwell played like a one-man tourism bureau, thumping for South Carolina every time his Charlotte, North Carolina-based AAU team played, people thought he was a little batty to stay home too. He was the best in the state, which meant he could escape South Carolina basketball ineptitude and succeed somewhere else, anywhere else.
Hometown fans, of course, desperately wanted them to stay home. Good basketball players are rarer than NCAA tournament wins in South Carolina. The state claims the legendary Pete Maravich, but only because his dad was coaching at Clemson.
Dozier and Thornwell represented more than just hope; they signaled a message, that the Gamecocks program was worth sticking around for.
But people with even a hint of basketball smarts questioned their decisions, wondering why players with such talent would want to go to a school with no tradition.
"That's all I ever heard: Why are you going to South Carolina?'' Dozier said. "That was the biggest criticism I got. People thought it was a bad decision.''
Faith, hope and the allure of being a hometown hero are an intoxicating combination, though, especially for 18-year-olds lulled into believing by a coach who lived the improbable fairy tale life as the child of Cuban immigrants turned millionaire basketball coach.
Frank Martin first sold Thornwell, and Thornwell in turn made the pitch to Dozier.
On Sunday afternoon, the trio made believers out of a lot of other people. The two combined for 43 of the Gamecocks' 77 points to lift South Carolina, a team that hadn't won an NCAA tournament game in 44 years, to its first Final Four with a 77-70 win over Florida.
"Everyone said that: Why would you go there? Why?" Dozier said. "I don't know if I can explain it, but I just felt like we could do something special.''
Special became surreal Sunday, with Dozier and Thornwell realizing as soon as Duane Notice scored on a breakaway dunk that they had done the improbable, if not the impossible. They danced and jumped with their teammates, posed for pictures and recorded videos, while a crowd that seemed to include everyone in the state lost its collective mind in the stands.
While Martin embraced his mother, Lordes, in an emotional and endless hug, kissing the single parent who immigrated here in 1960 on the forehead before letting her go, Thornwell and Dozier ran from one corner of the court to the next.
Dozier eventually made his way into the stands to find his family, the few people who didn't question why he would go to South Carolina.
His sister, Asia, played for the South Carolina women's team, and his father, Perry, helped formed the Gamecocks' twin towers, alongside his twin brother, Terry, in the 1980s.
They understood the draw, even if they privately fretted whether their boy would taste any version of success.
"I'm so blessed to have the people in my life that believed in me and believed what I was doing,'' Dozier said.
Thornwell eventually collected what was left of one net, looped it around his neck and threatened to not remove it until the Gamecocks' next practice Tuesday.
More even than Dozier, this run is about him. People within the SEC knew how incredibly good Thornwell was, awarding league player of the year honors to the senior, even though his team finished third in the conference. But until this tournament started, Thornwell, like his team, was a relative unknown.
Thornwell asked only that his team -- and he -- be given a chance and earn a bid. The Gamecocks' stock was a touch shaky, with six losses in their final nine games, their 10-seed a byproduct of a soft bubble.
But when Thornwell saw the Gamecocks' name on Selection Sunday, he shouted a then-ludicrously silly notion that eventually became the team's motto.
"He said, 'If we're in it, why not win it?" Martin's wife, Anya, said as she stood on the court watching her husband cut down the nets. "And how could we not follow him?''
Following Thornwell has been a very good plan for the Gamecocks all year, and certainly for all of March. He has shouldered the goals of a team and the weight of a state on his shoulders, never so much as buckling under the burden.
In four NCAA tournament games, he has scored 103 points, none more critical than his 11 points in the second half against Florida. A promised rock fight between two conference foes squaring off for the third time this season delivered, with neither team able to get a lot of offensive juice against the other.
Martin's decision to wisely extend his defense in the second half was the game-making option of the contest, turning the Gators' 7-for-12 3-point shooting in the first half into an 0-for-14 clankfest in the second.
But the Gamecocks still had to score, and that was no easy task, either, with Florida changing its identity under second-year head coach Mike White into a much tougher defensive team.
Enter Thornwell. With Justin Leon trailing him the entire game, Thornwell stopped looking for jumpers and opted instead to get to the rim or even post up in the low blocks. In the span of five critical minutes, Thornwell scored 10 points, pulled down a rebound and swiped two turnovers, including a pivotal steal off Kasey Hill that set up Maik Kotsar for an easy jumper and a four-point South Carolina lead.
"He yelled my name like, 'Sin, give me the ball,'' Thornwell said. "And that's when I knew Maik was ready to play. He was prepared for the moment.''
The moment arrived seconds later, the buzzer sounding as the jubilation began. The players were asked afterward if they had any thoughts about what to expect at the Final Four in Glendale, Arizona -- with 70,000 fans in a domed stadium on quite literally an elevated stage.
They couldn't answer, of course. It's not something they've experienced, not something they really even dreamed about. When the Gamecocks first gathered in October, there was no talk of March glory or conversations about a Final Four. Even for players who like to say they believe anything is possible, four wins in a tourney that South Carolina had spent more than four decades trying to win one game in was something of a stretch.
"The Final Four? Nah, I didn't think about that until we beat Baylor,'' Thornwell said. "All I was looking for was a chance. That's all I wanted was a chance. Once we got a chance, I thought let's just see what we can do. Let's see if we can prove people wrong.''
Why on earth are you going to South Carolina?
To get to a Final Four, it turns out.