The South Carolina men’s basketball team will begin training on Wednesday and will do so without a known competition schedule, but that schedule is coming soon. Head coach Frank Martin revealed on Tuesday that he will be able to know today the final game that will go to the agenda of his team with a release date scheduled for a week.
The NCAA recently shortened the men’s and women’s college basketball season slightly and postponed the start date to November 25. Any game contracted before November 25 is null and void, so Gamecocks, along with all the other teams across the country, had some adjustments to make with their schedule.
Martin is currently working on the final game, which will be set for the first day the games can be played, and will be at Colonial Life Arena.
“We are in deep talks with a school to solidify the start date of November 25 at home,” said Martin. “As soon as that name is on the contract, the schedule is done. I’m sure it will happen today. We must launch something at the beginning of next week at the latest. That would be my guess. “
The NCAA has given teams 27 games, and if schools want to play a friendly game behind closed doors against another opponent or an exhibition game in front of fans, they can do so. But that game, or games, would be subtracted from the total number of 27 that can be played.
Martin says his team will not play a friendly behind closed doors, but the game on the 25th of next month could end up being an exhibition game against a state school.
“We can have an exhibition game with a local school to give them the opportunity to help with the budget and create some interest here in the city, but that is still under discussion. This game will be an exhibition game or a counting game. I’m just not sure which way I’m going to go in that direction. I’m inclined to make an exhibition game, but we’ll see what happens. “
While Martin is still organizing his schedule outside the conference, he thanks the Southeast Conference for making a change to its typical format. The Gamecocks, and the rest of the league, will play a conference game in December, which is usually not the case.
“I thought what our league did tremendously, which allowed us to play a game in December, which opens a window for makeup games at the end of the year. That was a great decision because we are dealing with a stranger. This gives us the flexibility to control our league schedule ”.