Martin updates Couisnard's situation

SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS BASKETBALL

With the spring semester starting and the men’s basketball team returning to class Monday, the Gamecocks are still nowhere closer to a resolution on the ongoing Jermaine Couisnard situation.

The freshman is still working through an academic issue and Frank Martin said there isn’t a timeline on when he or fans can expect a ruling.

“I wish there was a deadline I could give you,” he said. “It’s been frustrating.”

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Couisnard has not played this season dealing with an academic issue that Martin has said plenty of times is a “non-campus” problem and the Gamecocks are essentially in a holding pattern with him until that ruling ultimately comes down.

The guard who was the first commitment in the Gamecocks’ 2018 class is enrolled at the university and going to classes but is currently ineligible and cannot play in any games.

He can, though, practice with the team and has been since arriving back on campus before the fall semester started in August.

The Gamecocks, after a month off from school, resumed class today with the semester officially starting.

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For Martin, if Couisnard is ultimately eligible this season, it creates an interesting dilemma for the team on if Couisnard will ultimately redshirt this season with only 15 conference games left to go.

It’s still a big "if" on if a decision even gets rendered this season but Martin said even if Couisnard was eligible, Martin would leave the decision on redshirting up to Couisnard.

“I have to stay out of those decisions whether it’s his because of his situation or the injured guys because any opinion I would share is probably biased and slanted to helping us win,” he said. “I need stay out of it. I can tell you as a parent, if he got cleared next week, I’d probably call the coach and say, ‘I know he’s eligible but I don’t want to burn a year.’ As a dad, that’s what I would do.”

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No matter what, the ineligibility does not impact Couisnard’s NCAA clock of having five years to play four at a D-I school.

If he isn’t eligible this year or opts to redshirt, he would return to Columbia next season as a redshirt freshmen with four years of eligibility left.