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Bryant shows why he's important to this South Carolina team in debut

Keyshawn Bryant got up and the horn began to sound.

A smile crept onto his face as he ran toward half court and tucked in the black jersey draping his 6-foot-7 frame and it got wider as he checked into a game for the first time this season and the crowd let out a roar, the biggest of the game to that point.

For the first time in five games, Bryant was back and showcased exactly why South Carolina needed him.

Photo by Chris Gillespie
Photo by Chris Gillespie
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“Knowing the fans still got your back through ups and downs,” Bryant said, the smile still there postgame. “That was the most special knowing the fans are still behind me through it all.”

Bryant missed the first five games of the year after serving a suspension for a violation of athletic department policies, making his debut in a seven-point win over Rider.

It didn’t take long for him to showcase vintage Bryant—he turned the ball over, made a great defensive play, hauled in a rebound, hit a shot and picked up an assist and a block in just under 150 seconds—en route to a 17-point performance.

He finished with 17 points on 6-for-10 shooting in just 21 minutes, finishing a team-best plus-26 with five rebounds, two assists, two turnovers, three blocks and two steals but affected much more at the rim and threw down one of those dunks he’s known to do.

“He’s an established, successful, high-major college basketball player. You saw the assaults on the rim whether it was in a set where we cut him out of the corner and created that foul. The open court plays,” Frank Martin said. “Some guys are great on-ball defenders, some guys are steal guys and he’s really good at steals off the ball. He’s gotten better on the ball but that’s not his deal there but off the ball he has great anticipation.”

He’d make a few big plays down the stretch, hitting a game-tying three with just over 12 minutes to go, hit a three-point play at the rim and then finds Wildens Leveque for a bucket plus the foul as well.

In vacuum those are good plays but lumped together speak to what Bryant can offer as he gets more ingratiated with this Gamecocks’ team.

“He’s been a whole lot of fun to be around this preseason,” Martin said. “He’s been really engaged.”

The Gamecocks got off to a solid start without him, winning four of their first five games with victories over good mid-major teams like Western Kentucky, UAB and Wofford.

Now comes a pivotal stretch of the non-conference schedule starting Wednesday night at Coastal Carolina with games against Georgetown, Florida State and Clemson after that.

“First thing I notice about this team is we’re real gritty. We like to play hard and play aggressive. That’s one thing I noticed when guys started getting up,” Bryant said. “That’s how we play. That put a smile on my face knowing I’m coming back to some guys who are ready to go.”

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