South Carolina's men's basketball season unofficially starts tonight.

The Gamecocks are hosting a free exhibition against Benedict at 7 p.m., the first chance outside of the summer's SC Pro-Am fans get to see what this iteration of South Carolina basketball looks like.

It's been a hectic offseason for the Gamecocks with serious roster turnover and here's what to look for tonight against the Tigers.

Newcomers, newcomers and more newcomers

If you’re a fan who hasn’t kept up with some of the offseason movement, bring a program. The Gamecocks have just five scholarship players back from last year’s six-win team: Jermaine Couisnard, Wildens Leveque, Ja’Von Benson, Keyshawn Bryant and mid-year enrollee Tre-Vaughn Minott.

Of the 13 scholarship players, eight are newcomers (five transfers, three freshmen) and with Bryant and Couisnard likely to not play Thursday it means there will be a lot of fresh faces on the court against Benedict.

Thursday will be the first time fans get to see all of those players on the court together in a game setting and get a sense of what this team will look like in 2021-22.

Taking point

Outside of Jermaine Couisnard’s semester at point guard in 2019-20, that position has been largely in flux since PJ Dozier left for professional basketball after the Final Four season.

If South Carolina wants to show progress, it’ll need to get stability there with Thursday the first opportunity to see some of the candidates there. Couisnard seems the odds-on favorite to start at point at the beginning of the year but transfer Chico Carter Jr. and freshman Jacobi Wright will also get minutes there.

Both are new to the system and seeing how they fare there will be a big focus on Thursday.

Playing D

Frank Martin teams are predicated by defense and last season the Gamecocks finished with its worst adjusted defensive efficiency (98.9) since Martin’s second season in Columbia.

Getting back to what South Carolina is defensively is a major goal for the staff this offseason and seeing if the physicality and defensive acumen is back at least in an exhibition setting will be big for Martin and the fan base.

How South Carolina is using its size

Last season South Carolina ranked 82nd nationally in average height and were forced to play small for large parts of the season and they struggled inside at times. This offseason they tried to address it, bringing in 6-foot-8 grad transfer AJ Wilson, 7-footer Josh Gray and 6-foot-11 Minott midyear to pair with Leveque.

It’s a roster much more in-line with how Martin wants to play with two bigs on the floor simultaneously with a wing and two ball-handlers.

How that looks Thursday will be telling on if the Gamecocks could potentially play like they were a few years ago.

Knockin’ down shots

The Gamecocks struggled mightily shooting the ball last year, finishing 13th in the SEC in league play in effective field goal percentage (46.8), 12th in both two-point shooting (47.2) and three-point shooting (30.7) and last in free throw percentage (66.2).

Again, the staff tried to address it through the transfer portal and in recruiting by bringing in James Reese, Carter Jr. and freshman Devin Carter along with Erik Stevenson.

Seeing how that looks, even in an exhibition, will be a big key Thursday night.

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