Ask any coach in the SEC who’s been in the league for more than a few years, and the same words about South Carolina get thrown around.
Coaches like Rick Barnes, John Calipari, Mike White and others will talk about teams under Martin’s physicality and mentality and mimicking the personality of their head coach.
With so many newcomers—eight scholarship players who weren’t on the team last year—it can be hard to make an impression identity-wise this early, but Martin likes where things stand entering the season.
“I think it’s in a good place. One of the messages I shared with our team after Saturday’s practice was you have to bring your lunch pail every day right now,” Martin said. “Because if you go one day and take it for granted and come in with that mindset, someone’s going to come and take your job. That’s the great thing about depth as a coach.”
Last season was a deviation from those Martin-led teams of the last few years from at least an identity standpoint, finishing 11th in the league in defensive efficiency.
The Gamecocks tried to address those issues in recruiting and the transfer portal, bringing in guards fitting Martin’s system and more size on the roster compared to what it was really since Chris Silva and Maik Kotsar were on the floor together.
“I know one thing: in practice we’re physical. I know that. I know we have it in us, but there’s a difference between practice and games. In practice we don’t call any fouls. You pretty much have to get ran over to get a foul called in practice. In a game it’s a lot more sensitive when it comes to calls. I know we have it in us,” newcomer Erik Stevenson said.
“It’s just a matter of figuring it out during the game. I know we have it in us. I know for a fact it’s there.”
South Carolina did enroll pieces the staff thinks can make an impact and get the Gamecocks back, at least stylistically, to what they were when they rattled off six straight seasons with at least 17 wins, including two seasons of at least 25 wins.
Stevenson is in his fourth year of college basketball with stops at Wichita State and Washing and joins two more graduate transfers in James Reese and AJ Wilson, both multi-year starters at North Texas and George Mason, respectively.
Younger players like Chico Carter Jr. (Murray State) and Josh Gray (LSU) enrolled as well along with a three-man recruiting class with two Rivals150 players in Devin Carter (91) and Jacobi Wright (114) then Ta’Quan Woodley.
“All of us have transitioned pretty well into being that physical presence for our team. Everyone’s adapted to the identity pretty well,” Wilson said. “This is the biggest carry over is how to be physical during games under the whistle. Just playing smart and being physical at the same time.”
The bullets are live starting Tuesday night, though, with the season opener at home against USC Upstate (7 p.m., SEC Network Plus).
It’ll be the first dose of adversity this team hits with roles being chiseled out, bringing an extra thing Martin and his staff have to handle with a roster he and the staff thinks is incredibly deep with “a bunch of guys I feel pretty comfortable putting on the court right now.”
“Fast and furious. Not to use a play on words from the movie or the series, but that’s how we play. We play really fast and we play really furious. James Reese is ultra competitive. Jermaine is ultra competitive, Erik Stevenson is ultra competitive,” Martin said.
“The big guys, they’re throwing their bodies on top of each other every single day. Those are the two words that came out last night, so I’ll quote the movie series and use that as a representation of the way we play.”
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