Almost always quick to respond with a detailed answer, Frank Martin was left on a word search Tuesday when talking about how he tried to manage what the South Carolina men’s basketball team has been through for the past three weeks.
Gamecocks (1-2) had to pause all team activities twice in December. Five games have yet to be played, one being the SEC’s first game against Kentucky. The team will have their first normal training on Wednesday, but not all 15 players should be active, as they are in different stages of leaving the isolation if they tested positive for COVID-19 or quarantined if they were flagged in contact tracking.
“I’m 54 years old and I know that I’m still immature in the way I do certain things,” said Martin. “I think I’m also at a point in my life where I’ve seen good, bad and ugly things with things I control and don’t control, where I’m better equipped to control my emotions than a 21-year-old and I’m struggling with that. I am not struggling to play. I am struggling to know how to manage this.
“I’m looking at how to do this to help the players and keep them in a positive position when there is no guarantee that we will play. I have a feeling that eventually we will play. Eventually, we will arrive late enough in the season where everyone was positive or we have enough positive points where we can go to play with eight or nine players. At the moment, this is a challenge ”.
As Gamecocks began to return to the practice courts, Martin could see the physical impact of having to stay away from the game.
“(On Monday) being on the court for 45 minutes, just playing half a court with groups of four, they were short of breath,” said Martin. “When you are closed for as many days as we are, these children are quarantined and isolated. They are not allowed to go to the gym and throw balls and run sprints. They are not allowed to do any of this. You are asking someone who lives a banker’s life to suddenly become involved in high-level athletic competition with limited (prep) days. Winning and losing now isn’t even part of my mentality, it’s just the opportunity to get on the court and compete ”.
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Martin observed a university policy enacted in September that all students must obey while on campus. If in isolation or quarantine, the suspension of a semester is punishment for being caught in public. Players are restricted to their dorms or apartments without permission to do aerobic exercise, if they are healthy enough to do so.
“That’s why I sent everyone home for Christmas, because we dealt with that block for the first time and I wasn’t going to make them do it for three consecutive weeks,” said Martin. “It’s difficult. I was isolated in a very nice house with many rooms with a backyard and it was still very frustrating to move. You can imagine being in a small one bedroom apartment or a two bedroom apartment because you have a roommate ? It is a difficult place to be. “
Martin put how long it has been for his team in perspective when he said the team will have trained only three times since December 6, when the game against Florida A&M starts on Saturday at 3:30 pm
“I’m struggling to get excited about the opportunity to compete when, the day before, you have a game, they close it,” said Martin. “It is a different animal. I don’t have an answer. “