Was the Court Shinier?

As is the norm when any coaching change occurs, South Carolina saw a significant overhaul of their roster from Frank Martin's final season to the Lamont Paris' first. A total of eight players left the program to attend other schools. Three followed Coach Martin to UMass. Excuse us for beating a dead horse, but we can't help but wonder what a lineup with Jermaine Couisnard, Erik Stevenson, Devin Carter, G.G. Jackson, and Wildens Leveque starting would have looked like this season. Of course Meechie Johnson would be playing elsewhere.

For Dawn Staley, her program lost four players to the transfer portal. Three of the four were nearing the end of their eligibility and decided to go elsewhere for more playing time after winning a National Championship. Saniya Rivers, Hoop Gurlz 3rd ranked prospect for the class of 2021, surprisingly left after playing 25 combined minutes in the Final Four. Rivers role last season was that of a late game defensive replacement. Rivers wouldn't have started this season, but she would have likely been one of the first guards off the bench. The loss of Rivers has been easily masked by the collection of McDonals All-Americans that Staley has assembled in Columbia. Staley steals more talent out of the McDonald'ss game every year than Cleo McDowell did their IP.

(All stats are from games thru Jan 25th)

G - Saniya Rivers (NC State) After appearing in 27 games during her freshman season in Columbia, Rivers transferred to NC State. This season she has played in all 20 Wolfpack games and started in 5 games. She is averaging 8.9 points, 4.8 rebounds, and over two steals a game.

F - Elysa Wesolek (North Florida) Woselek is Graduate Student that had been in Staley's program since the 2018-2019 campaign. She was generally one of the last players to enter a blowout win. This season with the Ospreys, she is averaging 7.6 points and 3.8 rebounds. She scored a career-high 20 points in North Florida's win over Liberty two weeks ago.

G - Eniya Russell (Kentucky) Russell appeared in 23 games last season for Carolina. The junior guard moved on to Kentucky in the offseason. Russell has appeared in 13 games for the Wildcats averaging 3.8 points and 1.5 rebounds a game.

G - Destiny Littleton (Southern Cal) Littleton had carved a role out in Columbia as a zone busting three point shooter off the bench. She had the second best 3-point percentage on last year's team with a minimum of 20 attempts. (Destanni Henderson was first). Littleton transferred to USC West and is having a solid season for the Trojans. She is averaging 12.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, and leads her team in assists with 77. Littleton led all scores with 18 points in So Cal's upset of Stanford on January 15th.

Every Gamecock fan should be supporting Littleton as she continues to support the Gamecocks. She attended and celebrated with her former team after SC beat Stanford in OT, then she went out seven weeks later and the beat the Cardinal herself. Russell and Wesolek's roles would not have changed for the remainder of their careers in Columbia so one can't fault them for looking for more playing time. Rivers could have worked her way into the starting lineup by her junior season and it does not appear that her game has progressed much from last year.

G - Erik Stevenson (West Virginia) Stephenson is on his fourth program in five years and third program over the last three seasons. The senior guard's offensive numbers are up slightly from 11.6 ppg with the Gamecocks last season to 13.1 ppg this year. He is also shooting at a better clip from the field and from behind the arc. Oddly his free throw percentage has dropped from an incredible 98.4% at Carolina to a still solid 75.9%. Stephenson has run afoul of WVU Coach Bobby Huggins for his actions in the clip below. West Virginia looks an NIT team this season.

G - Jermaine Couisnard (Oregon) Couisnard would have been a sure starter for Carolina this season. He averaged double digit points in each of his first three seasons in Columbia. He's battled injuries this year and has appeared in only the Ducks last six games averaging 13.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 2.0 assists. Couisnard had a season-high 27 points in Oregon's upset win over then #9 Arizona. Oregon looks like an NIT team.

G - Devin Carter (Providence) At the time of his transfer, we felt Carter was the biggest personnel loss from last season. As a true freshman he averaged 9 points and 3.8 rebounds. As expected, his numbers are up across the board in year two having started in all 31 of Providence's games. This season he's averaging 13.1 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.8 steals a game for the 23rd ranked Friars. Keep an eye out for Carter in March this season.

F - Keyshawn Bryant (South Florida) The human highlight reel wanted to play his final season closer to his hometown of Winter Haven, Florida. USF is not having a good year and Bryant's numbers as similar to what they were at South Carolina. We aren't certain Bryant would have been back even if Frank Martin were retained. He's averaging 9.4 points, 5.1 rebounds, and a monster dunk every week.

G - Mike Green (The Citadel) Green has only appeared in three games for the Bulldogs this season. He scored 8 points against NAIA Morris College. Green appeared in only 17 games in his three years in Columbia, scoring 20 total points.

Frank Martin's Minutemen are 12-8 overall and 3-5 in the Atlantic 10. He picked up his 300th career win on Wednesday night in a 85-76 win over Richmond.

F - Brandon Martin Unsurprisingly Brandon Martin chose to follow his father to Massachusetts for his final season (unless he his granted a waiver for 2020-2021 where he appeared in only 3 games due to injury). Martin has started all 20 games for UMass but is only averaging 3.2 points per game and 3.8 rebounds a game.

F - Ta'Quan Woodley Woodley was the first player to announce he was following Martin to UMass. Woodley has not played in a game this year and it not listed on the school's roster per their athletics page.

C - Wildens Leveque The 6'10 big man started 28 games for Carolina last season. Despite being in his fourth year of college basketball and playing against lesser competition in the A10, Leveque's numbers are still down this year in scoring and rebounding. He is averaging only 4.8 points per game.