The first day of preseason practice as a freshman, Alanzo Frink was a young freshman going up against two future pros in Chris Silva and Maik Kotsar.

Fast-forward two years and Frink is lacing up his sneakers as the old guy in the room with young bigs looking up to him as a Silva or Kotsar type of player.

“It’s a good thing,” Frink said. “I feel like a lot of people now on the team trust me since I’ve been here for two years and I’ve been around Maik and Chris. I feel like they trust me more to have a say so with the team.”

Frink spent the last two seasons as a bench or rotational player behind two All-SEC players in Silva and Kotsar, getting minutes sparingly compared to those two big men.

This year, though, he’s the old guy in the room as a junior with two sophomores and a freshman behind him, in line to see his minutes go up this year.

When he has played, Frink showed a unique offensive skill set, finishing the year averaging 5.3 points on 59.6 percent shooting with 3.7 rebounds per game.

He’d end with the highest offensive rating on the team at 114.3. Because he’s smaller for a big man (6-foot-7), this offseason was spent working on footwork to make sure he can compete night in and night out with other frontline big men in the SEC.

“Everyone in the SEC is taller than me. I got stronger in the offseason,” Frink said. “I’m working on my footwork learning how to go around the rim against bigger guys.”

He showed flashes in spot starts last year with Justin Minaya out with a thumb injury. Highlighted by a 22-point game in an overtime win over Georgia, Frink averaged six points 4.7 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in seven straight starts.

Coming in as a junior, after learning from Silva and Kotsar, Frink’s not only working on his game but trying to be the type of leader those two guys were later in their careers.

“I’m trying to help the freshmen out and explaining, doing how they taught me about being more physical, rebounding and the things Frank likes and the things he doesn’t like,” Frink said. “I’m trying to help them with the ropes and trying to be more vocal with the whole team in general.”

It’s nothing new to him, though, with Frink being a leader his final two years at Roselle (N.J.) Catholic before coming to South Carolina.

“I was more of the veteran. I understand the plays now and it’s just getting everyone ready to understand plays and to pick their spots,” he said. “I know with Chris and Maik, they were more vocal with me about picking my spots and learning the plays.”

Frink is competing for the starting center job vacated by Kotsar, competing with a few other guys before the season started.

Through three weeks of practice, Frink’s been impressed with what he’s seen.

“I feel like everybody worked on their game in the offseason, which is pretty good,” he said. “Everyone is more athletic; everyone is stronger. I feel like everyone’s going to impress during games.”