SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS BASKETBALL

Frank Martin may be really high on this year’s version of the Gamecock team, but he knows how young this group is. The Gamecocks only have two seniors—with one being a grad transfer—and one junior eligible to play this year in Jair Bolden. So, while talented, they’re still young.

Which is why, about three weeks into practice, Martin decided to see what his young group’s learned.

“Since we’re so young, early practice I do so much teach that practice doesn’t get up and down and in a flow” Martin said. “I’m trying to teach as much as I can, especially early. We’re young, and because we’re young, we need to learn to play with officials. I brought officials in and we scrimmaged.”

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The Gamecocks scrimmaged late last week before getting Saturday and Sunday off, then starting on defensive schemes Monday.

It wasn’t anything similar to practices before this where Martin and the assistants frequently stop things to correct a player’s mistake or spend a minute or two teach a concept that maybe a guy is struggling with or messed up recently.

Martin said he let them go up and down the court, and it affirmed something he raved about already this preseason.

“I left there (saying), ‘We’re really fast,’” he said. “Like, AJ Lawson, Jermaine (Couisnard), Keyshawn (Bryant), Justin (Minaya), those guys running down the court with our bigs running down the court, we’re going to be fast.”

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While young, the Gamecocks have a lot of returning talent in projected first round pick Lawson and Bryant, who had a breakout freshman year last year with Minaya out.

Minaya, along with TJ Moss, is back from injury and the Gamecocks insert Jair Bolden and Couisnard into the fold after both guys had to sit out last season.

They also bring in a crop of young talent, headlined by Rivals150 players Trae Hannibal and Jalyn McCreary, which is exciting for the coaching staff.

All of this gets results in a team that finished second in the league in adjusted tempo and returns eight players who were on the roster last season. They’re incredibly deep at guard with the five already mentioned and walk-on Mike Green, who scored almost 2,500 points in high school.

Point guard play is something Martin takes a lot of pride in, and right now he likes what he’s seen for the most part.

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“Our point guard play, we’re turning the ball over too much from the point guard play, but I’m real happy with them because they’re being extremely aggressive,” Martin said. “I’d rather have guys that play fast and teach them how to slow down. When you’re forced to play fast, you can’t adapt. Right now, I’m letting them go and keeping them aggressive and fast. When we get closer to November, I’ll start taming them down. The other good part is we had 16 guys and each team had eight so we could actually scrimmage for 20 minutes. That was fun.”

The Gamecocks will have their annual tip-off even Friday night at 6:30 p.m. at Boyd Plaza on Hampton Street. Admission is free and will include both men’s and women’s teams.

The men start their season with an exhibition Oct. 30 against Columbia International before their first regular season game Nov. 6 against North Alabama. Both will be at Colonial Life Arena.