Q&A: Fans reflect on past, future of Gamecock basketball

[ShepCock]

By JOE MCLEAN  | 06/18/2019

Just two years ago, the South Carolina men's basketball team made history. In 2017, the Gamecocks went to the Final Four — the highlight of the men's basketball program. However, the Gamecocks have not played a postseason basketball game since April 1, 2017 where they lost to Gonzaga, much to the frustration of the Gamecock fan base. 

The Daily Gamecock, in the second part of a three-part Q&A series, interviewed University of South Carolina alumni Ted Hyman and Clarke Lindsay; University of South Carolina students Patrick DeMarre, fourth-year broadcast journalism student; Noah Diveley, fourth-year sport and entertainment management student; and Francis Marion University alumna and Gamecock fan Hope Nye about the past men's basketball season and what must change for the Gamecocks to return to the NCAA tournament. 

Q: What was the most frustrating part of the 2018-19 men's basketball season? 

ND: "Just the injuries ... We were picked towards the bottom of the SEC and we came out on fire. Our bench got so thin that it was really hard to compete, especially at Missouri whenever we had like five or six guys maybe who could actually play. And of course, a couple seasons ago we went to the Final Four and we haven't made it back, which is always disappointing." 

CL: "Missing the tournament. I mean that really is what it comes down to in my opinion is missing the tournament." 

Q: With the 2017 Final Four, expectations for men's basketball at South Carolina are at an all-time high. Going forward, what are realistic expectations for the program and for Frank Martin? 

CL: "The University of South Carolina should be in the NCAA tournament. We've never really been a basketball school ... We're not Kentucky. We're not Kansas ... But with that being said, I don't think the tournament is something that we should not want. I think that's a very attainable goal every year. 68 teams are making it nowadays ... We better be one of the top 68 teams in the country." 

TH: "I think next year we need to make the NCAA tournament. I think we have a good team. I think we play in a good conference. Maybe one of the best one or two conferences with the ACC. SEC basketball has gotten a lot more respect. We obviously handled the in-conference well last year. I think we gotta make the tournament. I mean if we don't, that's one tournament birth in ... [Frank Martin's] seventh season."

Q: What needs to happen to change the team's fortunes from the past season and to meet the expectations? 

HN: "[The Final Four] was just two years ago. They lost the really, really good players they had during that run. And now [Frank Martin] is having to bring in more talent to replace that, and that's what he's doing. I really don't think there's really much to change because he's doing exactly what he did before." 

PD: "Anything better than last year ... Looking at the team right now, I would say just be more competitive. At least make the NIT. Try to make a good push for the NCAA tournament. And the deeper we get in it, the better."

ND: "After losing Chris Silva, definitely need to find a big man to pick up his minutes because he was one of the best players to ever put on a Gamecock jersey. I think just staying injury-free. I think we have the talent this season, especially with Jair Bolden coming back. A.J. Lawson just pulled his name out of the draft. We got Micaiah Henry, the transfer from Tennessee Tech. So we have the pieces ... I think we have the talent, it's just if we can stay injury-free and stay locked in." 
 

 

[ShepCock]

Frank Martin’s eighth Gamecocks team could be best mix of talent since he arrived

By David Cloninger - Charleston Post & Courier - Jun 25, 2019

COLUMBIA — He said it with a caveat. Yes, he loves his team, but it’s June and many college basketball coaches love their teams in June.

Yet Frank Martin could be feeling much worse about his eighth team at South Carolina, which will try to get over the hump that’s stood in front of the postseason the past two years.

“I think we have a lot of talented pieces,” Martin said. “I think top to bottom, one through (16), it’s as talented a team as I’ve been a part of as people, work ethic, talent level, experience, when you put it all together.”

There’s so much known and unknown about the 2019-20 Gamecocks, Martin signing seven recruits (one walk-on Mike Green of Myrtle Beach, another North Carolina transfer Seventh Woods, who will sit out this season) to a stable core of returning players. By the numbers, the Gamecocks return nine, led by sophomore guard A.J. Lawson, considered a potential first-round NBA draft pick next June.

But there’s much unknown about the returnees as well, due to the numerous injuries that rocked the squad last year. That gives USC an advantage, since it knows exactly what it has for the new class to augment while the opponents won’t.

“Probably the best I’ve had since I’ve been here,” Martin said, quickly following with another point that it’s still summertime and that his best team, the 2016-17 squad that featured SEC Player of the Year Sindarius Thornwell and ended in the Final Four, was good in summer but kicked it up a notch during the season. “They’re fun to be around.”

USC returns Justin Minaya, a leadership-savvy guard who was limited to five games last year, and T.J. Moss, whose freshman season running the point was short-circuited after seven games. USC still hasn’t seen what Jermaine Couisnard (sat due to academics) and Jair Bolden (sat after transferring from George Washington) can do in a real game.

Those players can join the returnees that, along with departed seniors Chris Silva and Hassani Gravett, carried the team last year. Maik Kotsar brings three years’ worth of experience while Keyshawn Bryant, who never met a first-possession ball he wouldn’t try to dunk, teams with Lawson as a high-flying offensive sophomore showcase.

Outside of Green and Woods, Martin added one graduate transfer and four high school prospects. Micaiah Henry from Tennessee Tech filled the Gamecocks’ wish for a big man after Felipe Haase transferred. Trey Anderson, Trae Hannibal, Wildens Leveque and Jalyn McCreary bring two guards and two forwards to the roster.

All but McCreary and Henry are already enrolled and working out. Martin only has sporadic chances to see them but he’s already pleased with what he’s seen.

“New guys don’t get me excited for the upcoming year, the old guys do,” he said. “The returning guys give me an enthusiasm that they’re going to be so good as players and people that they’re going to help the new guys, so the new guys are better prepared to move forward.”

Recruits are recruits, rankings are rankings. As Martin said, every coach likes his team in the summer because if they didn’t, they’d be calling their athletics directors to talk about a buyout.

But going into his eighth season as USC’s third winningest coach, owner of three of USC’s only six winning SEC seasons and a Final Four, Martin has a similar mix of young and old as he did when his program reached its greatest height.

 

[ShepCock]

South Carolina men’s basketball roster for 2019-2020

1. Micaiah Henry, Sr.

2. Maik Kotsar, Sr. 

3. *Seventh Woods, RJr. walk-on

4. Jair Bolden, Jr.

5. Justin Minaya, RSo.

6. A.J. Lawson, So.

7. Nathan Nelson, So. walk-on

8. Alanzo Frink, So.

9. Keyshawn Bryant, So.

10. T.J. Moss, RFr.

11. Jermaine Couisnard, RFr.

12. Trey Anderson, Fr.

13. Trae Hannibal, Fr.

14. Wildens Leveque, Fr.

15. Jalyn McCreary, Fr.

16. Mike Green, Fr. walk-on

* Ineligible in 2019-20

Yep, that sounds right....16 players, minus 3 walk-ons is 13 scholarships.

Youth is an issue, we will have 10 of our 13 scholarship players (77%) being underclassmen. The breakdowns are 2 seniors, 1 junior, 4 sophomores, and 6 freshmen.

The following year we open up 2 scholarships, and if Seventh Woods takes one, that only leaves us with one other.  Unless AJ Lawson leaves early (which appears likely), then we'll have 2 scholarships to offer.

 

[MorganGamecock]

Young and inexperienced, a big big problem

 

[ShepCock]

Young and inexperienced, a big big problem

Not always.  The Fab Five were young and inexperienced and played for 2 straight National Championships.

 

[GMB2USC23]

Young and inexperienced, a big big problem

In todays NCAA with the one and done as well as SOPHS and JR's regularly leaving early it is the exception to have a team full of SR's, the top 2 teams in the country preseason have a total of 3 seniors and will be led by Freshmen. The core of the team has played and lived together for more than a year, 2 of the players were leaders on there respective squads along with Kotsar and Minaya should be plenty of leadership with experience.