BJ McKie’s name is synonymous with basketball in South Carolina.

McKie was a basketball star at Irmo High School and later at the University South Carolina, where he helped the Gamecocks to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances in 1997 and 1998. He was the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year in 1996 and a three-time All-SEC first-team selection.

McKie is one of just five USC players to have his jersey retired after scoring 2,119 points, the most of any Gamecock in school history.

After his playing days, McKie got into coaching with stops as an assistant at Charleston Southern, East Tennessee State and Wake Forest, where he’s now in his sixth season.

McKie and Wake faced South Carolina in an exhibition in Rock Hill on Oct. 15.

McKie, now 49 years old, spoke with The State and touched on a variety of topics from his USC playing days to recruiting and the NIL landscape — and the time he interviewed for Gamecocks’ head coaching job.

Lou Bezjak: Was it weird facing your alma mater, South Carolina?

BJ McKie: It actually wasn’t the first time, so it wasn’t as weird. The first time was a little weird — matter of fact, it was in the same building. It was a scrimmage when Frank Martin was the coach. So it is always weird going against your former school.

Bezjak: Seeing that South Carolina jersey on the court, what memories go through your mind from your time there?

McKie: It’s so many. Jeff Parsons, our head trainer who was there when we were there (in Rock Hill). Larry (Davis, former teammate) was there. I just saw Coach (Eddie) Fogler, earlier this week. He came to practice, and all of us still keep in touch a little. We’ve still got a group thread. We have an annual get-together every summer together. You know, for a weekend, and reminisce and talk about old, old times. … The championship banner that we hung, I think it was the school’s very first championship. We beat Kentucky at Kentucky to win the SEC championship. When Kentucky even came here, you know, Sterling Sharpe, Hootie and The Blowfish, Dick Vitale was here. I have a lot of great memories and, and stories that I’ll cherish forever.

Bezjak: Your thoughts on what you saw from the game and South Carolina?

McKie: South Carolina has a big team. They have some guards that can make plays. They have bigs that can step out and shoot and stretch the floor. I think they’ll be deep where they can go about maybe like nine deep. … Both teams are just trying to figure some things out, just trying to figure some things out with your team before it actually counts.

Bezjak: What is your role and coaching duties at Wake Forest?

McKie: I’m an associate head coach, and I basically work with the guards. I work a lot with the defense. I coordinate recruiting, pretty much do a little bit of everything. All of us do a little bit of everything. What’s so unique about our staff is, we’ve been together so long, we know about each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We all wear a bunch of hats.

Bezjak: You mentioned recruiting. How has it changed with name, image and likeness and compensating the players?

McKie: It’s extremely different. One of the main reasons I got into this business is to change kids’ lives, and help them grow, help them mature. One of the biggest things that has changed is how long you might have a kid. You might have a kid for seven or eight months, and they’re gone. A long time ago, you’re basically watching the kid grow and develop over three or four years. You like to think that you helped that kid, molded that kid into a young man to where he goes on and then becomes a father, good husband, a good boss or whatever he might be. Now you only have these kids for so long, it’s hard to develop those type relationships that I once had.

The whole landscape has changed. I mean, we read about it every day on social media, and it’s changing as we speak. Just with the money aspect, kids can now play for five years instead of four, and they can transfer any time they want to, year in and year out. There’s a lot of chaos in our industry right now. Hopefully, we can get something where we can establish some rules and some boundaries.

Bezjak: You mentioned NIL. What kind of value might you, Melvin Watson and Larry Davis have had when you guys played for the Gamecocks?

McKie: You’re talking about one of the better backcourts in the country, so we kind of came for top dollar (laughing). We talk about it and laugh about it. I wish NIL was in play, just like most other players who I played with and played against wish it as well. I don’t mind the NIL. I think players should be compensated. Whether it should be a cap put on it or not, I don’t know. I don’t make the rules. I think the NIL is good, especially if kids are investing their money and spending their money wisely on things that can really help them and push them ahead in the future. I think that the most important thing is investing what they’ve earned for later use in life instead of buying jewelry, cars and a bunch of unnecessary stuff.

Bezjak: Where you are in your coaching career, do you think you are ready to be a head coach?

McKie: I’ve interviewed in the past. I’ve been a finalist at USC, been a finalist at Georgia State. I’ve been a finalist at North Carolina A&T. It’s just about somebody giving me the opportunity. I enjoy being an assistant. But I eventually want to be a head coach. It just has to be the right situation and all about timing. I tell athletic directors all the time, trying to be a head coach sometimes is like trying to get credit for the first time. You can’t get credit until somebody actually believes in you. I’ve been around the game of basketball for 40 years, so I think I kind of know about the game. I’ve played the game. When the time is right, it’ll be the time, regardless of where it will be, and I know it’ll be the right time. I just need somebody to believe in me and trust me that I can run a program.

Bezjak: What was the interview process like when you interviewed at USC, and what did you learn from that?

McKie: As far as I thought, they came down between me and Lamont Paris. A lot of guys dropped out that were very qualified at that time and sometimes that’s what it takes for you to get a job like that. Ultimately it took me not having any head coaching experience. You have to ask coach (Ray) Tanner (former South Carolina AD) about all of that. I think everything was done professionally. I think they were taken back at how I interviewed. I think I interviewed very well when I went down there.

The only thing that put a sour taste in my mouth is because I found out how the rest of everybody else found out. I think I was owed a phone call, but I mean, it is what it is. Business is business. It was a good experience, a really, good experience. It was a great experience just people believing in me and wanting me to be the head coach of South Carolina. You look at social media and people posting, “Bring BJ back.” It makes you feel special.