This season, South Carolina has more size on its roster currently than in previous years, but in Thursday’s exhibition Martin didn’t see exactly what he wanted to from a group of mostly newcomers.
Despite a big win over Benedict, Martin wanted to see more in the front court after talking about an increased physicality in the preseason.
“We shot six or seven free throws? No physicality. How many offensive rebounds did we get? Thirteen? Not very good. Our bigs didn’t rebound on the offensive end. Wildens Leveque grabbed two offensive rebounds. AJ Wilson grabbed one at the end of the game. I know we didn’t miss a lot of shots, but there’s no presence.”
Of the five scholarship bigs to play Thursday—Tre-Vaughn Minott missed the game because of strep throat—they shot the ball well (34 points on 15-for-20 shooting) but only shot three free throw attempts and hauled in nine offensive rebounds, which Martin says has to be better.
They did block nine shots and drew 10 fouls but also turned the ball over eight times and committed nine of the Gamecocks’ 16 fouls and Martin wants to see defensive improvement no the interior.
Benedict also had 34 points in the paint with 16 offensive rebounds and 13 second-chance points.
“Defensively we were good on the perimeter; not great, good. I thought defensively we were bad from the bigs,” Martin said. “It’s the best way I can describe it. It’s what made us look bad defensively. Our big guys were not in tune with what we’re doing.”
The bright spot in the frontcourt was by far Josh Gray who, while still an exhibition, posted a double-double with 10 points (4-for-5 from the field, 2-for-2 at the line) and 12 rebounds, four of which came on the offensive end.
He ended with a game-high plus-27 and showed against the Tigers potential for this season.
“With Josh Gray, I think you see the talent and the size and ability to protect the rim and grab rebounds and move his feet. He defends ball screens better than any big on our team right now,” Martin said.
“I thought Josh Gray protected the rim and you saw a couple times where he decided to really post up in there and he’s so darn big and strong he doesn’t understand how good he can be in there just yet.”
South Carolina has a few days to work on things defensively in the frontcourt after an off day Friday as they prepare for the regular season opener against USC Upstate Tuesday night (7 p.m., ESPN Plus).
It’s a group still new to Martin’s system outside of Leveque, who’s in his third year—Wilson and Gray are in their first years in the program, Ja’Von Benson is a sophomore, Ta’Quan Woodley is a freshman and Minott came in midyear last year—and there’s the thought from Martin this team can be a good one.
“I thought we were all right. I thought we saw some good and I thought we saw some ugly, which is what you get in an exhibition game,” he said. “As a team, we can be so good because we have depth and we have smarts and we have athleticism. Then obviously we have size."
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