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Gamecocks Host Columbia International In Exhibition Wednesday

FeatheredCock

FeatheredCock

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Gamecocks Host Columbia International In Exhibition Wednesday


Men's Basketball | 10/29/2019 

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The South Carolina men's basketball team will host Columbia International on Wednesday night in an exhibition contest at Colonial Life Arena.  Tip time for the free admission matchup is set for 7 p.m.  There will not be an audio or video stream of Wednesday's exhibition contest. (VIEW ARTICLE)

 
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[COLOR= rgb(0, 0, 0)]> Carolina recently announced it will add throwback uniforms to its lineup for game attire this upcoming season.  Fans can get their first glimpse of the throwback uniforms when the Gamecocks host Houston on Dec. 8 at Colonial Life Arena.[/COLOR]
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The most notable headline.  Looking forward to seeing those.

 
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kingofnerf said:
The most notable headline.  Looking forward to seeing those.
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I like the jerseys. Not too wild about the sides of the shorts, but they do follow the old uniforms:

51CcYAkzsaL.jpg


 
To me, the throwbacks look a lot more scrappy and they scream, "Represent!", to any player that puts them on just like they did back in the day.

Now Frank just needs to practice cinching up his tie and cufflinks before chewin' somebody's arse and we'll be good to go.

 
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Gamecocks win 87-50:

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Solid showing considering both Bryant and Cousinard - two potentially explosive offensive players - were not able to dress tonight for the game.

I thought the Gamecocks got sloppy towards the ends of both halves, with a number of fouls and turnovers. That seems to be the typical case for Frank Martin teams that are still in the process of learning how to play with each other in games. At the end of the game however, the Gamecocks seemed to clean things up a bit, and reeled off a 14-0 run to close the game. So at one point both teams were tied in scoring in the 2nd half 27-27.

TJ Moss needs to work on his ball security. His game-leading 5 turnovers in 21 minutes soured an otherwise decent game of 5 pts, 5 assists and 4 rebounds. Bolden had a strong game with 12 pts, 6 assists and 6 boards, but I think he picked up all 3 of his fouls in a 8-10 minute stretch in the 2nd half, during which time both teams were scoring evenly. Frink picked up his 3rd foul early in the 2nd half, so he kinda played a tribute game to Chris Silva with limited minutes due to foul trouble, but still finished with 9 points and 8 boards....

Maik Kotsar was the early surprise with scoring and rebounding, and finished with 12 points and 7 rebounds. He was 5 for 9 - hopefully he carries that confidence into the season, but he's been known to disappear.

Jalyn McCreary scored 10 pts in the 1st half in his first "official" college game on 5 for 5 shooting, and finished with 15 pts, 3 assists, and 3 rebounds. A good sign from him.

AJ Lawson scored 8 1st half pts mostly off of free throws, then took over after halftime and finished with a game-high 23 pts, 7 assists, and 3 rebounds.

Overall the team shot 48% from the field, 47% behind the arc, and 53% from the charity stripe. Henry and Leveque need to put in some work on their FT shooting: they were 2 for 12 combined. The team however pulled 53 rebounds, dished 23 assists, forced Columbia International into 21 turnovers, and collected 13 steals. All solid team numbers - anytime your team has 20+ assists, and force your opponent into 20+ TOs, you usually win comfortably....

 
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Post game player personnel updates from Coach Martin:

Keyshawn Bryant will be out "for a while" due to his knee injury. Coach Martin said Bryant's injury was similar to Alanzo Frink's last year. Frink wasn't able to play until December. There were reports earlier recently about a "cyst" discovered on the back of Bryant's knee that had to be drained, but I don't know if that is the specific injury he's talking about. Bryant's injury was said to have been suffered in practice, and the cyst wouldn't apply to that, and Frink "tweaked" his knee during practice, and had to have it scoped, so it was more than a "tweak", unless tweak means tear.....

Freshman PG Trae Hannibal was dealing with cramps during the exhibition game tonight. Coach Martin thought it was more due to nervous energy than straight dehydration. The team doesn't play again until a week next Wednesday, so that's something that should get treatment and have Tare ready to go to start the season.

Jermaine Couisnard missed tonight's game due to "illness". Again, we have a week to go before the next game, but Coach Martin stated he wasn't sure when Couisnard would be back. He didn't explain what type of illness it was....

 
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Thanks for the write up, Conway!

A little disappointing about the injuries and illness. Hope they recover from them quickly.

 
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Mr Ed said:
Anybody go to this in person?  Impressions?
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Yeah, I went.

The Greeks had some type of function next door at the Convention Center, so there was no student presence at the game.  The CIU students wore their colors and filled up half of the student section behind the visitors' goal and they were into it.  They would get loud for the Rams when they would score and it really felt like a home game for CIU.  I think we should lead off with them every year based on that.

I was a little late and didn't get to my seat until the 15:00 mark in the 1st half.  McCreary was in a good rhythm on offense and there was good flow. Kotsar wasn't on the court and I didn't think I saw him on the sidelines.  I assume he started but didn't know for sure at the time.

Once he came in, his whole upper body became drenched with sweat after a few minutes but he wasn't grabbing rebounds or making what few shots he took.  He had a couple of those turnaround hook shots at the rim that didn't go in.  He looked totally out of shape and physically unprepared for the game.  He totally took the offense out of rhythm.  It was really noticeable if you were watching the game.

McCreary and Leveque will probably end up being our starting bigs, but they are going to need some PT against real opponents to get there.  Frink had his moments, too.

On offense, we looked more freestyle than running scripted plays, which is what you would expect in an exhibition game that is more like a transition game between the Pro-Am series and regular season play.  McCreary and Leveque just imposed their physicality on CIU's bigs, who were pretty decent themselves.  Our better strength and conditioning in the backcourt wore their Gs out as the game went on.  CIU's Gs looked physically weaker on their shots as the game went on.  They missed a lot of backdoor-cut passes, but so did we.  That should fix itself with more PT.  No Sin-Factor from the Gs except for A.J., who consistently tried to penetrate the paint.

Defensively we looked great and we finally looked like a Frank Martin team out of the box for the first time in a couple of years.  CIU was in pass-pass-brick mode the whole game. 

We'll do okay in the short term, but we'll need to be more aggressive in the paint on offense once we get into conference play.  Our opponents will be much better on both ends of the court and hopefully the bigs will stay out of foul trouble.

 
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ConwayGamecock said:
Maik Kotsar was the early surprise with scoring and rebounding, and finished with 12 points and 7 rebounds. He was 5 for 9 - hopefully he carries that confidence into the season, but he's been known to disappear.
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kingofnerf said:
Once he came in, his whole upper body became drenched with sweat after a few minutes but he wasn't grabbing rebounds or making what few shots he took.  He had a couple of those turnaround hook shots at the rim that didn't go in.  He looked totally out of shape and physically unprepared for the game.  He totally took the offense out of rhythm.  It was really noticeable if you were watching the game.
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Are you guys talking about the same game for Kotsar?

 
Kotsar looked real good early and then faded away. Guessing he got tired, which ain't great news.

Thought all the newcomers looked better and more prepared than most of the newbies in prior years.

 
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