Entering the ninth season under Frank Martin, South Carolina has 16-24 against teams ranked in the Top 25 entering this match. The 2016-17 Final Four team went 6-3 against the Top 25 competition with four of those games in the NCAA Tournament. Last year’s team was the only one on Martin’s team that had a winning record against the Top 25 competition, with wins over Virginia and Kentucky and a loss to Auburn.
A qualified team is next for the third game of the 2020-21 season, a road fight against No. 10 Houston at 6pm on Saturday. Most players from last season form the core of this year’s Gamecocks team. The group understands the attention to detail of an execution necessary to take down a ranked opponent, but also speaks confidently about its ability to achieve a victory of that caliber.
“Houston is definitely a very good team and we will prepare for them all week”, junior redshirt striker Justin Minaya said. “All we can do is improve each day and we will be ready for Saturday. It’s a great opportunity. That’s why I came to school here, to play against some of the best teams in the country. We are a very good team too. We will be ready for Saturday. “
On Wednesday, Martin said that if it were the second or third year of his tenure with a group of young players, it would be very important to face a qualified opponent and get out on the winning side. Although it still means a lot this season, especially given the quality of his opponent Houston is an opponent out of the conference at the start of the season, Martin says there is no need for motivation and there should be no lack of confidence.
“If you come to my office, I have a basketball on the wall for every Top 20 win we’ve had since I’m here,” said Martin. “I think there are 17 up there. This is not the first year for us here. On the road against Iowa, my second year, we beat them in New York and they were ninth in the country. We are no longer there. At that time, it was ‘See, we can do this’.
“We should be in a place where we get excited because we are playing with a really good team, but there should be no doubt in our minds that we are good and able to play the way we should and win. This does not diminish the respect that I or we have for Houston. On the contrary, it should generate enthusiasm on our part, the fact that we are able to line up and play with a high caliber team that we feel is the representation of an SEC opponent.
“We had some success against very good teams in my time here. Internally, we are very proud of it and we get out of bed every day with the certainty that what we do works. Whether we will succeed on Saturday or not from a winning perspective will not determine who we will be in March. This is just a step on the way to becoming the best team possible. “
front Jalyn McCreary, a sophomore player, knows what mentality is needed to enter a game like Saturday’s.
“It must be a good game with two physical teams facing direct confrontations,” said McCreary. “I think we will be ready for this Saturday. It will be a challenge, but I feel that we can go there and surprise everyone. If we go there and do what the coach asks us to do, I think it will be a very good game and we will have the chance to win and eliminate a qualified team. “
Woods loses training, Martin hopes to play Houston
This will be the second encounter between Gamecocks and Cougars in the past two seasons. Houston knocked Carolina down at Columbia 76-56. Gamecocks were defeated and hit. Current forts like AJ Lawson and Jermaine Couisnard were maintained at 10 points and three points, respectively. Minaya was the team’s main rebound with six.
Houston Guard Quentin Grimes is back for his junior season. With an average of 16.5 in three games this season, he scored 24 points, the game record, against the Gamecocks last year. Second year guard Marcus Sasser, this year’s top scorer (17.5 ppg), scored five points against Carolina last year. They are two of Houston’s four players with double-digit points averaged per game at the start of the season.
“Most of our team is back, as are they,” said Minaya. “We definitely remember what happened last year. It’s a different year, but we definitely keep that in mind, which happened last year. “