Every season isn’t a cakewalk. Frank Martin knows that. His team knows that. But when things get rocky this season, there won’t be a Sindarius Thornwell or Duane Notice to navigate through the storm.

Thornwell and Notice played the majority of their four years on campus and took on leadership roles as they got older. Thornwell, the more vocal of the two, and Notice, the leader by example, both graduated last year.

So, while Martin tries to figure out what kind of team he has before the Gamecocks take on Wofford in less than a month, he’s also trying to understand what kind of leadership he has on his team.

“These guys are all trying to figure that out right now. That’s why I’m pressuring them a little bit; just because there’s a sense of urgency more on me than them,” Martin said. “Because I’ve never been through it with them in that role. So I’m trying to pressure them so I can see how they handle things so I can help them better.”

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The Gamecocks started practice earlier this month with the hopes of continuing momentum after the program’s first Final Four last season.

They return six players that saw time last season, and four that played significant minutes over the tournament run: Hassani Gravett, Chris Silva, Khadim Gueye and Maik Kotsar.

Silva is the most experienced of the four heading into his junior season, but Kotsar and Gravett are heading into their second years inside the program.

In an effort to teach them more leadership skills, Martin has thrust some of his older players into campus or conference-wide leadership roles.

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Kotsar met with student-athletes across the SEC this summer as part of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. He was one of just 68 participants and just one of three from South Carolina (Bryson Allen-Williams and Simone Wark were the other two).

The committee was in charge of meeting with SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey to discuss issues involving college athletics.

“We’ve put them in different leadership councils in our own campus and in the SEC because those things are important to them and they want to take the next step,” Martin said. “So them being around other people their age, their peers, that are interested in being leaders, it’s going to be a real good thing for them.”

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So, as the Gamecocks prepare for a season opener in roughly 23 days, Martin will be focused on getting his newcomers up to speed on the team’s offense and defense (but that’s a whole other monster).

He’ll also try to instill the mentality that Thornwell, Notice, Justin McKie and P.J. Dozier played with last season and the personality the team’s taken on from last year’s seniors.

But, while Martin tries to figure all of this out, he still needs to find the leaders on his team. That’ll take time.

And though Martin is trying to figure out what he has this season, some of it won’t be found out until the lights come on and the clock starts.

“As much as I like the team, there’s some things I’m not going to learn about them until we start playing games. Anytime you have youth, as a coach, that's your biggest concern.” “But as to who they are, what they want to be, the work ethic, the enthusiasm they get along really good. For a team that has so many new faces, they enjoy being around each other.”