Everything Frank Martin said on South Carolina's four transfers

It's been a busy few weeks for South Carolina men's basketball on the recruiting trail, and Thursday Frank Martin was able to address some of the Gamecocks' newest additions from the transfer portal.

Over the last 12 days South Carolina's landed four commitments—guards Chico Carter Jr., James Reese and Erik Stevenson—and a big man in AJ Wilson.

Carter and Reese are both hyper-local players, having played high school football in the Midlands before beginning their college careers elsewhere.

With all four NLIs in as of Thursday, here's what Martin had to say about each of the four transfers.

Chico Carter Jr. and James Reese, guards: “Chico Carter and James Reese, two guys—and I won’t get into details as to why today but maybe in the future—coming out of high school I always look back on those two and say I made a mistake cause I didn’t offer those two a scholarship. Those are two of my favorite players I watched in the midlands area in my time here.

I always look back and say, ‘I probably messed up not offering those guys a scholarship.’ When he transferred from Buffalo to junior college, when he was at Odessa we didn’t need a guard in that class. I never pursued him. I don’t recruit to make it sound good. I do it to be genuine and I just wasn’t going to do that with him. This time around, one’s a point guard and one’s an off guard. Both play with a tenacity and athleticism.

One thing I like about the four guys is they’re ball hawks. They see the ball and go after the ball. Those two guys are going to bring tremendous toughness, character, talent, shooting. I’m excited for both of those guys and for them being local kids. Both at the end of the day, their dream was to play at South Carolina. My wife turned me down seven times. She finally said yes and now she’s stuck with me. I said no the first time around and wasn’t making that mistake again.

I was going to bring those two guys home. I’m happy they’re both coming home. Those kids who are from here get to surround their heart every time they play with the name on the back of the jersey, which is who they are, with the name on the front of the jersey which is the state they represent. What a special place that is to do that when you play.”

Erik Stevenson, guard: “Erik Stevenson is someone we recruited a year ago when he was leaving Wichita State. He’s another ball hawk, a guy who can shoot. All three guys are playmakers. They’re willing to make plays on offense and defense. They’re not one-trick ponies. Erik’s a dynamic personality; he’s aggressive. I know this, when we were getting ready to play Wichita State in Cancun I was watching him on film and was like, ‘I like this guy.’

Then we went out and played and he single-handedly destroyed us and created the mindset and tempo of the game in a game we had no chance to win. We tried to recruit him a year ago and he wanted to go home. Obviously going home didn’t work out the way he planned. He was as excited as excited can be when we called this time around.’

AJ Wilson, forward: “I loved him in high school cause of the aggression he played with, but offensively he was very underdeveloped at that stage. He went to George Mason and had a heck of a career there. He was the Atlantic 10’s most improved player after his junior season. He chases that ball, man. He blocks shots, he rebounds offensively and defensively. He runs the court. Offensively he’s improved drastically.”