SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS BASKETBALL

Frank Martin has to worry about a lot in timeouts, but as the controlled chaos swirled around him Wednesday night he heard another voice piping up.

As Martin diagramed plays, made adjustments and coached his team, Jermaine Couisnard’s voice cut through the noise and he helped direct his teammates along with the coaching staff.

“In timeouts he’s taking ownership of the team, which I loved,” Martin said. “He was loud, he was telling people what to do and he was challenging guys on what not to do. When he figures out how to get to the right places, he’s going to make the right play most of the time. He’s a very intelligent player.”

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As the Gamecocks started their season 5-3, Martin’s talked at length about finding a vocal leader on this team, and he mentioned two players on opposite ends of the spectrum on the roster.

The first is one is obvious in senior Maik Kotsar, who’s the longest tenured Gamecock on the roster and playing arguably the best basketball of his career with the other being Couisnard.

Couisnard, who sat out last season, is just nine games into his college career and already turning into a players tasked with getting his other teammates in line.

It was easy to see the maturation on the court over the season with him a little in his shell to start the year but spending a few seconds in Wednesday’s 84-80 win over UMass, lecturing Jalyn McCreary after a bad foul in the second half.

“I feel like I make calls on the court when he tells us the call and it’s about being more vocal on defense,” he said. “I’m always talking in practice so I feel like I should help lead.”

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It’s hard for a young player to step up and lead, especially early in the year but Couisnard can because his bark can back up his bite right now.

He’s one of the Gamecocks’ (6-3) best players right now, finishing last night with 16 points and hitting a few clutch floaters to keep the Minutemen at arm’s length for the majority of the second half.

With Jair Bolden struggling, Couisnard actually handle the reigns of the offense as the point guard, leading the team with six assists against UMass.

“Jermaine, he’s a very good basketball player,” AJ Lawson said. “He has a high IQ; he knows how to score, drive and shoot. Today he did that and made the right play.”

His emergence comes a few weeks after having an in-depth conversation with Martin about refocusing and getting back to playing his game.

In his five games since then, he’s averaging 11.2 points per game and shooting 50 percent from two points (just 29 percent from three).

He’s only missed two of his last 12 free throw attempts and has an average offensive rating of 105 with three of his last five offensive ratings above 115 while sporting a 19-to-9 assist to turnover ratio.

“I kind of like him coming off the bench if the other guys are doing things the right way. If they’re not, I’m not that dumb,” Martin said. “Putting good players on the court usually helps you win. Unless something’s really bad, I’m not going to make any changes until we get closer to Christmas when we have more practice days. I don’t want to disrupt the personality we’ve created up until this point. Jermaine deserves to play. A couple weeks ago he changed the channel. He re-engaged. He’s playing well because of that.”

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The Gamecocks will need Couisnard and Kotsar to continue their leadership skills as they get ready for a crucial stretch with three of their next seven games against top 25 teams, including two against top 10 teams.

“Him and Jermaine, which I’m happy to see, are taking ownership of this team. For us to continue to grow those guys have to take ownership. It’s easy to take ownership when you’re up 20,” Martin said. “It’s easy to take ownership in September when there are no games. It’s hard to take ownership now when your teammate’s feelings are hurt because they’re not playing as much as they want to play. Those two guys are doing it, and that’s very important for our basketball team.”

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