When the buzzer sounded and the ball banked in, giving the Gamecocks a dramatic win over Kentucky, something clicked with Jermaine Couisnard.

That dramatic buzzer-beater served as Jermaine Couisnard’s coming out party to the rest of the SEC but confirmed to his teammates exactly what they’ve seen the last two years: Couisnard is just built differently.

“He brings it every day,” Keyshawn Bryant said. “Once he got comfortable, it really got going. When he stepped and became the vocal piece of the team, you knew he was going to be a guy we needed.”

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Couisnard’s stats obviously speak to his talent—he’s averaging 14.8 points, 3.6 assists and 2.6 rebounds in SEC play—but it’s more than just the points and the rebounds he’s putting on stat sheets on a nightly basis.

Since taking over as the Gamecocks’ point guard two games into the SEC play, the team has taken on a completely different personality, directly related to Couisnard getting the ball in his hands more.

The personality has taken South Carolina to sixth in the SEC with a freshman manning the point guard. He’s embraced the role of the team’s vocal leader, not afraid to call out teammates in games or on the practice court so Frank Martin doesn’t have to.

But a closer look at who Couisnard is and the stats he puts up reminds a lot of former players of one of the best players in program history: Sindarius Thornwell.

“He has the same swagger about him that Sin did. I can see that when frank said that,” said Hassani Gravett, who played with both. “I could see it before Frank brought it up. It’s hard to put in words. It’s the swagger about himself he has you can tell is comparable to Sin.”

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Gravett played one year with Thornwell, serving as a backup guard as he watched Thornwell helped lead the Gamecocks on an NCAA Tournament run ending at the Final Four.

He was Couisnard’s host on Couisnard’s official visit, his first glimpse of what he calls Couisnard’s “developed mind” for the game. He knew how special he could be to the point that he was pleading with Martin to try and get him eligible to play while Couisnard sat out last season dealing with an academic issue.

He got a front row view on the intrinsic value Thornwell brought to the table, the same things he saw in Couisnard as soon as he arrived on campus and the team started playing pick up games.

“I was talking a lot of junk. He got mad and used that anger and come back at me to get buckets and help his team win,” Gravett said. “Then he started talking his junk back. Then I started realize this kid has some skill to him.”

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Looking at the stats, still, shows just how eerily similar Couisnard and Thornwell’s freshmen years are.

In SEC play, Couisnard has a better offensive rating (98.7) than Thornwell’s and has a lower turnover rate, higher two-point shooting percentage and is drawing more fouls per 40 minutes than Thornwell did as a freshman.

Thornwell, though, was a better rebounder, better free throw shooter and three-point shooter as a freshman.

“They’re very similar as people. They’re very similar with their confidence. They’re very similar statistically,” Martin said. “I’m not trying to compare him to Sin. When I did that I was just trying to give you guys the behind the scenes feel of what he’s like to be around every single day. I hope his career ends up like Sindarius’ did. I hope his growth ends up like Sindarius’ and I hope our success is tied into his success like it was tied into Sindarius.”

Couisnard’s story hasn’t been officially written yet, and the Gamecocks still have a few more games to play in the SEC Tournament and the postseason if they make it.

He still has three years of eligibility left and still needs to develop, but his teammates are optimistic about what he’ll be able to bring from a mentality standpoint throughout his career.

“They’re both really big competitors," Justin Minaya said. "They both are very good players and both are really competitive. That’s where the similarities come from: how much they compete.”