How Alanzo Frink reshaped his body this offseason

Whether it’s a five star McDonald’s All-American, a three-star top 150 prospect or an unranked player at a mid-major, the moment comes for every freshman.

No matter where a guy is playing, there’s always a welcome to college basketball moment he experiences.

For Alanzo Frink, who bounced in and out of the lineup with injuries the first part of his career, that moment came on the road in the SEC.

“Playing against Kentucky, I think it was Reid Travis,” Frink said. “I remember he was strong. When I was playing him in the post, he’d bury me every time. I was like, ‘It’s definitely time to get stronger.’”

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What Travis didn’t know at the time—and how could he?—as he was putting up 11 points and nine rebounds against the Gamecocks, was he was motivating Frink to do something that was much needed to take his game to the next level.

Frink came to Columbia officially listed at 6-foot-6, 265 pounds and played sparingly as he battled those injuries and two bigs—Maik Kotsar and Chris Silva—ahead of him.

In his exit meetings as the season ended, strength and conditioning coordinator Scott Greenawalt told him he needed to “chisel” his body before the start of next season.

So, Frink got to work and six months and two hairstyles later, he looks the part.

The sophomore’s weight doesn’t look different—he’s listed at 260 pounds—put he’s shed some of the fat on his body that may have been slowing down his development as a freshman.

The change came gradually, with Frink saying he’d spend a little more time running before and after workouts this summer.

He’d also switch up his diet as well, not having to cut out too much fast food, but limiting his carbohydrate intake with less rice and bread and more salads and good protein with three big meals a day with snacks intertwined.

“I have class in the morning, so I wake up and eat breakfast,” he said. “I’ll have like eggs and spinach with water. I’ll go to class, come back and eat a little snack. We have popcorn and stuff like that. I’ll eat popcorn and go back to class. Then we have weights and I’ll eat after weights. We have lunch, so I’ll eat maybe chicken, salad and rice. Then after that, we’ll have dinner. That depends on what I eat, like Chipotle or things like that.”

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Then, the results started to come. He began to see more muscle build up and he could play pick up for longer than he was a year ago where he was huffing and puffing about a half into the game.

Now, he’s hoping to pair his newly reshaped body with the fact he’s finally healthy into a productive senior year.

Frink battled a knee and ankle injury for what seemed like the majority of his first season on campus. He played in 24 games, averaging 2.7 points and 1.8 rebounds, but only had eight games where he saw doubl-digit minutes.

“I feel like I was hurt pretty much the whole season,” he said. “I worked in the offseason working on my ankle, my knee, just trying to get everything stronger coming back to the season now. I feel better.”

With Silva gone and Frink the second-most experienced in the Gamecocks’ system and hoping to parlay it into more minutes this season. He has competition in graduate transfer Micaiah Henry, who is in his fifth season of college but first under Frank Martin, and freshmen Jalyn McCreary and Wildens Leveque.

Frink is envisioning more time on the court now he’s gotten into better shape and is ready for whatever college basketball can throw at him.

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“The biggest difference for me, since I’m not really explosive, I had to learn how to use my body a lot because I couldn’t jump through people,” Frink said. “In high school, I was stronger than everybody so I could body people in the post. Now, everybody’s strong, so I have to learn how to use my footwork and use my body.”