Gamecocks searching for physicality on two-game road trip
SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS BASKETBALL
South Carolina won it’s most recent game against Coastal Carolina, but there was something that stuck in Frank Martin’s craw.
He just watched his team get out-rebounded by the Chanticleers and encapsulated his team in one snippet before even answering questions.
“We’re a soft basketball team. We don’t rebound and we don’t make competitive plays when the ball is in the balance,” he said postgame. “People like to call them 50-50. What’s a 50-50? No one has the ball—go get it, it’s yours. It’s not 50-50; it needs to be 100-0. When it comes to that, we’re a soft team right now.”
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Rebounding—especially on the offensive end of the court—is a staple of a Frank Martin team dating all the way back to his time coaching Kansas State.
Since 2015, the Gamecocks have been in the top 60 nationally, and top four in the SEC, in offensive rebounding percentage, never dipping below 55th and topping at No. 14 in the country and hauling in rebounds.
This year is a little different.
The Gamecocks (4-3) are 129th nationally in offensive rebounding percentage (30.6 percent) and have been out-rebounded in four of their seven games. They’re also twelfth among SEC teams in rebounding margin (plus-2.1).
They’re hoping getting Evan Hinson, who spends the other half of the year playing football, back will help fix the team’s physicality.
“First of all, Evan’s a very versatile guy. I can pretty much play every position,” Maik Kotsar said. “I’m pretty sure he can push away the big guys under the rim because of how strong he is, and he’s really agile as well. He adds a lot to the team. The physicality he brings, I think it’s going to give an edge to our team.”
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Fixing it could be a challenge, though; with the coaching staff still trying to figure out what kinds of players it has on the roster.
There are a few players that don’t hesitate around contact—Martin mentioned he could “hit him with a sledgehammer” and Frink wouldn’t care—but some other players don’t initiate contact like Frink or others.
The challenge for Martin and the staff now is to “be more persistent” with contact in practice and for players to “buy into that.”
“You can’t force guys that don’t like physicality to become physical,” Martin said. “Some of these other guys that maybe that doesn’t come natural to, you have to constantly rep it and force it on them so they understand it really doesn’t hurt. So they don’t avoid it. Someone that’s not comfortable with, I don’t think they go out of their way to go deal with it.”
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The Gamecocks will try and fix the softness issues when they take on Wyoming on the road (9 p.m./Stadium TV).
Through the first seven games, it hasn’t been up to the standard, and Martin expects that to change as South Carolina finishes up its non-conference play and heads into SEC play.
“From a pride standpoint and individual standpoint, whether they like it or not for the rest of the team they have to learn,” he said. “We got another 23 or 24 guaranteed games. They have to learn for that number of games that 23 or 24 more times I need to throw my body around more aggressively than I have in the past.”
