When looking at or listening to Frank Martin, it’s easy to see or hear just how much this year’s taken a toll on him.

Just look at Martin’s head, where alopecia—developed after his first bout with COVID-19—has caused him to go bald or listen to the raw emotion in his voice talking about the passing of Pedro Gomez, a childhood friend.

It’s made coaching basketball for him tough in a year where Martin said the Gamecocks are trying to put a “square peg in a round hole.”

“This year’s been really hollow. The spirit to go win is hard to maintain and sustain. I’m not just saying us it’s everyone. We’re dealing with such constant heartache. I lost a lot of people I grew up with in the last year. I lost a lot of people who were dear to me in my life that weren’t actually family members. Then trying to deal with the environment we’re in,” Martin said.

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“We’re trying to play a normal basketball season under abnormal conditions in the world. It’s a square peg in a round hole. A lot of times you go home and wonder why we’re doing this. It’s the responsibility we signed up for; it’s the marching orders we’ve been given. Somehow, someway we have to stay strong and have tremendous faith we’re doing this for the right reasons.”

The Gamecocks have been dealt an insanely tough hand, having three separate COVID pauses this season. While the struggles this season haven’t been all on the pandemic, it’s made it tough for the team to build any sort of consistency.

They’ve had to change how they practice and the amount of time devoted to offense because Martin scrapped the old defensive philosophy, installing a new one in late January.

Now, after a tough offensive performance against Mississippi State, Martin said this week the Gamecocks will focus more on offensive sets leading up to the Alabama game Tuesday night.

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“You have to run things to get them out of the paint. The easiest way to get them out of the paint is to make jump shots. We couldn’t run anything creative because we haven’t been able to do that,” Martin said. “The team I prepared in October for the season is not the way we’re playing offensively because of personnel issues. It’s complicated. At the end of the day it’s something we have to do.”

The Gamecocks scored 59 points, the fewest in SEC play this season, and averaged just 80 points per 100 possessions.

It’s been hard to focus on offensive sets—the focus has primarily been on the defensive side of the ball—but the Gamecocks will spend more time on offense this week.

The issue, Martin said, is the Gamecocks need a level of physicality in practice and they can’t have that playing their third game in six days.

“When you have those kinds of games in such a small window you have to limit what you do in practice, especially when your team is not trained because of what we’ve dealt with to sustain a certain amount of effort, physicality and conditioning,” Martin said. “You’ve been deprived of building that.”

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The Gamecocks will need to show improvement if they want to upset No. 11 Alabama Tuesday night (6:30 p.m., SEC Network) with the Tide the best offense and defense in the SEC this season.

It’s been a struggle this year for South Carolina with COVID disrupting things in December followed by going 2-5 in their last seven games.

“I don’t look at it as frustration. I look at it as a challenge,” Wildens Leveque said. “There’s still a long season. We still have work today. It’s exciting to see progression and take on a challenge.”