When Jason Cudd arrived on campus, he wanted to redshirt. Coming in a young but lanky freshman still growing into his body, he talked to the coaching staff about having a year to get his feet under him.

Now, nearing the end of a freshman year that has Cudd playing meaningful minutes off the bench, he and his coach are glad he didn’t.

“Once we got closer to the season, he never asked again because he knew he had a chance to play,” Frank Martin said. “He’s worked at it; he’s a competitor. He’s worked at it, but he’s got pride. I think all those things put together allow him to keep getting up.”

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The true seven-footer is averaging just over seven minutes a game with 1.5 points per game.

He’s come a long way over the course of four months, learning the game and getting adjusted to the speed of college basketball.

After only playing in three or more minutes nine times over the first 22 games, he’s played at least 12 minutes in three of the last five games, including 14 twice.

Over those five games he’s averaging 10.4 minutes, 2.8 points and 1.4 rebounds per game. He also has an average offensive rating of 95.7.

Not bad for a guy that thought he wouldn’t see the floor until his second year on campus.

“Throughout from the beginning of the season to now I’ve seen a major improvement in my game,” Cudd said. “A lot of what’s helped me is the physical aspect of it, getting stronger and being able to keep up with these guys.”

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But it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows. There were some growing pains with Cudd having to learn what it’s going to take from a physical level to play SEC basketball and working with the strength staff to make sure he was fast and strong enough to compete.

Then some of the struggles happened more recently, like as recent as last week.

At practice, Cudd was caught with what he said was an illness and spent an hour throwing up into a trashcan on the sideline. The worst part? It was his birthday and the Gamecocks were getting ready to play Auburn.

After a bit of poking and prodding from his head coach, he was able to calm his stomach and play the last 20 minutes of practice.

The next game he’d notch a career-high six points and was the first big off the bench.

“It sucked to be throwing up. Obviously you want to be at practice. But Frank’s been putting a lot of trust in me,” Cudd said. “If I didn’t come in over the last 20 minutes like I was able to I would be betraying his trust.”

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There’s still a long way to go for a player still learning his role in college and getting stronger while he does it.

It’ll take time, but even on the recruiting trail Martin knew he had something special in Cudd. All three things the Gamecocks look for when recruiting post players—loving contact, footwork and ball handling—Cudd had.

Now it’s up to him and the staff to put it all together. Luckily for them, Cudd’s eager to make sure he gets better.

“I’m constantly prying, pushing and pulling to get him to do more,” Martin said. “The best part about him is he wants you to coach him…Jason wants you to challenge him. He wants you to coach him. He wants you to help him grow.”