When South Carolina tips off league play Tuesday night against Auburn, something relatively unheard of this season for the Gamecocks will be happening.
The Gamecocks, after spending most of the non-conference season in roster flux, will have all 16 players available when the No. 9 Tigers come to town.
“We’re in a good place from a health standpoint. We should have everyone in uniform tomorrow,” Frank Martin said. “I feel really good. Knock on wood, my health is good, my spirit is good, my energy is good. The players have a lot to do with that, too. The fact they’re out there playing and we’re not today seven guys and tomorrow eight guys…All good. All systems go. Unless something crazy happens, we should have all 16 guys.”
South Carolina has battled injuries and COVID issues almost all season and has gone long stretches without key pieces—sometimes even starters—for long stretches this year.
Of the Gamecocks’ 12 games this season, South Carolina’s been without at least one scholarship starter in 10 of those and without multiple scholarship players in six of those.
Keyshawn Bryant missed five games serving a suspension, AJ Wilson’s missed six with a bevy of injuries (most recently a knee sprain), Jermaine Couisnard battled injuries all year and missed four of the last six games, and the Gamecocks have missed a combination of Devin Carter, Wildens Leveque, James Reese and Josh Gray with COVID protocol issues.
All seven of those were expected to be big pieces of this year’s team and have missed long stretches, but the Gamecocks finally seem to have all of its pieces back.
“I’m very excited. I feel like everyone hasn’t played with each other. Every time we get our full team somebody goes down or something happens,” Couisnard said. “I feel like we’ve noticed we got our whole roster back. Now we have to go out there and play with confidence.”
But, despite the roster being in a constant state of flux the Gamecocks are still finding ways to win for the most part.
They finished the bulk of their non-conference season—pending a SC State rescheduling—with nine wins and three losses, the best record entering league play since the 2017-18 season.
The Gamecocks are 2-1 in Quad I and II games with wins over UAB and Florida State and 6-2 in Quad III and IV games with no Quad IV losses. In two of the three losses the Gamecocks have bee missing multiple scholarship players.
“I mean we had three bumps on our schedule, which is tough. I think we should be at minimum 11-1 right now,” Stevenson said. “It shows we have some guys, including myself, have to play every night and strap it up every night and mentally prepare every night. We can’t take anyone lightly. Being a leader on the team, it shows me a lot about the guys individually.”
Now the Gamecocks have 18 games against league competition coming up with 11 of those against teams either projected in the tournament by Joe Lunardi or on the bubble.
Getting their key pieces back should help but the Gamecocks have shown fight despite key pieces missing.
“They’re some fighters. In the Florida State game they were down and came back. They don’t give up no matter who’s on the court,” Couisnard said. “The opportunity isn’t going to take itself. It’s a team. That’s what we have a team for. Everybody steps up.”
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