Before South Carolina’s stunning upset of Duke in the second round of the N.C.A.A. men’s tournament on Sunday, the Gamecocks huddled in the tunnel leading to the court.
There they were addressed not by a teammate, a former player or even a basketball coach. The man in the center of the huddle was the Rev. Chris Leevy Johnson, a fourth-generation funeral home director in Columbia, S.C., who serves as the team’s unofficial life coach.