In a sport that pits young talent against experience every year, college basketball will do the same again in 2020-21. However, teams that have been together for the longest time will likely always have the advantage in a season that will present adversities and unpredictable results very different than their 12 vs. 20 twists. 5-seed in March.
This topic was discussed between college basketball reporter Andy Katz, college basketball analyst Jimmy Dykes and basketball coach from South Carolina Frank Martin in Katz ‘March Madness 365 Podcast.
“I think it is critical this season that if you have a disruption, having a veteran team that can cope with adversity will be critical to surviving this season,” said Katz when speaking to Martin.
The ninth-year Gamecocks coach could not agree more and believes that his lineup fits this favorably way of thinking. Martin returns 13 of the 16 players from last season’s squad.
“Great point, Andy. I had this conversation yesterday with my wife, ”said Martin. “She was asking how the team is doing. I said the advantage we have with a stable squad. We had no transfer of three guys and three guys graduated. We basically returned them all. There is an understanding of how we do things and I understand how they learn.
“If the day before a game we have to do things by zooming in to protect ourselves better, so that we can save the game instead of saving the practice, I think I can trust our team doing this because of the experience that you is talking. This is a tremendous advantage. I thought about the years when we were very young with a lot of first-year guys and it would be very, very difficult to go through the preseason and prepare a team to play and deal with anything that came our way with the other shoe. “
Below is more of Katz’s podcast sessions with Martin and Dykes. If you are accessing this Proving Grounds Plan message board story, click on the link below to read the full article.