Copyright Charleston Post and Courier
COLUMBIA — He isn’t the only international on South Carolina’s roster. He’s just the one majoring in it. Eli Sparkman, crowd favorite from 2022-24 as the end-of-the-bench guy that fans just ache to see hit a 3-pointer at the end of blowout wins, is back on the Gamecocks’ basketball team after missing last season. He had an outstanding reason: As an international business major in USC’s perennially top-ranked program, Sparkman spent February-June at the Universidad de Chile as part of its study abroad opportunity. “It was something after sophomore year, I had mentioned it with the coaches. In the back of my mind, I knew it was something that could always happen,” Sparkman said. “I had a conversation with coach (Lamont) Paris that being in the international business program and studying abroad was something I really wanted to do. “I always knew that I could come back and it could work out.” He was never just the GPA-lifter, the 3-point shooter who could supply some late cheers on those cold November/December nights where the non-conference season drags on. In his first season, Sparkman averaged over six minutes per game and got into eight SEC contests as Paris tried to cobble together a ragtag team and make a little noise after a coaching change. Sparkman didn’t get to play as much but was an integral piece of the 2023-24 team that went to the NCAA Tournament, a smart player who could instruct younger teammates on the intricacies of Paris’ system and supply valuable practice minutes. “I know he doesn’t care who scores, ever. I know he knows everything that we want to run offensively and what our schemes are defensively,” Paris said. “And I know he plays at full capacity, full tilt, in terms of an energy standpoint, every time he goes into the game.” Sparkman loves the game. Always has, always will. But if he wanted to go to Chile, he was going to have to leave the team just when it was entering the most crucial part of the schedule. Paris understood. He couldn’t hold the roster spot for Sparkman, but he said if it all worked out in 2025-26, maybe he could come back after he returned. With one open scholarship after the roster was restocked, there was one. Sparkman had already said if he could, he would. It was an easy call on each side. “There were times freshman and sophomore years when I was out there helping the team on the court, being the best practice player I can be, in the games, as a locker room guy,” he said. “They wanted me to be back. I love this coaching staff, I love being here.” He’s on his last two undergraduate classes this semester and will take a full load (18 hours) of graduate classes in the MBA program in the spring. He’ll still have a year of eligibility left if he wants to pursue it next year (wink), and is already tiptoeing into the job market with the ultimate goal being in Europe, preferably a big city someday, working in the crossroads of government and corporate finance. What he learned in the spring will undoubtedly help. It was a group of USC students in Chile, some living with host families used to the program, but Sparkman wound up living by himself. “They’re there to help you, but they want you to fully immerse yourself in the culture,” he said. “We got to travel around throughout Chile, the mountains, the coast, the desert, we went south to Patagonia, we went to Argentina a few times.
