South Carolina men’s basketball was released to return to action on Saturday night, after pausing the team’s activities on January 7 due to a combination of positive tests, contact tracking and subsequent quarantine.
Gamecocks (3-2, 1-0) will not have a full squad and will be without the main coach Frank Martin when they face the LSU Tigers in Baton Rouge, but they will at least play their second of five originally scheduled conference games. Martin’s program has already had to postpone road disputes against Kentucky (December 29) and Ole Miss (January 9) and a Tennessee lodging (January 12). His only dispute with the SEC during the first three weeks of the league game was a 78-54 home win over Texas A&M on January 6.
SEC Network announcer Mike Morgan will be calling for Carolina’s contest against LSU, a 8:30 pm report on the SEC Network. TheBigSpur.com talked to Morgan, who used to be the voice played by Gamecocks, to get a better idea of what the game was like in conference with the majority of Gamecocks without participation.
“I think Frank has one of his best teams in nine years at Columbia,” said Morgan. “I know he wants to make sure that they put the ship on course because this is a team that can compete this year. I think the SEC is deep again. You will see one of the best teams in the league on Saturday at LSU. Alabama is an incredible story and the work that Coach Oats has done in a short time. Florida is good. Tennessee, for me, is the best overall team in the league, from top to bottom. “
SEC rating (as of January 15)
Alabama – 5-0 (10-3 overall)
South Carolina – 1-0 (3-2)
LSU – 4-1 (9-2)
Tennessee – 3-1 (9-1)
Kentucky – 3-1 (4-7)
Florida – 3-2 (6-3)
Mississippi State – 3-2 (8-5)
Arkansas – 2-3 (10-3)
Texas A&M – 2-3 (7-4)
Missouri – 1-2 (7-2)
Ole Miss – 1-3 (6-5)
Auburn – 1-4 (7-6)
Georgia – 0-4 (7-4)
Vanderbilt – 0-3 (4-5)
“For me, it is a league with the likelihood of having half a dozen teams in the tournament again,” said Morgan. “In the last two years that we had a tournament, there were eight moves and seven moves. It was not so long ago that this league was struggling to get four. Now, if you get less than six, it is considered a low year. SEC basketball, when I started playing, was very strong. Then it fell for a number of different reasons, in terms of the quality of basketball. Now, I think that from top to bottom it is as deep as before.
“We expect six or more teams to participate in the NCAA Tournament every year. We’ve never said that before. I think, in general, the SEC in basketball is as healthy as before and I’m saying all that with Kentucky down. Before, the SEC relied on Kentucky’s success to be a quality league. Kentucky may not make it to the tournament this year, but it is still a very deep and quality league. “
Although Morgan and his fellow color analysts call most games remotely this season, Morgan has long-standing working relationships with most of the league’s 14 coaches. There has been a growing list of personalities over the past decade, starting with the hiring of Martin in 2012 and followed by Bruce Pearl (Auburn), Rick Barnes (Tennessee), Ben Howland (State of Mississippi) and Tom Crean (Georgia).
“It reminds me of what I’ve been able to enjoy in football over the years,” said Morgan when asked about the league coaches. “Basketball just needed to follow football. I get excited when I can interact with these guys, because a lot of what we are able to do with them behind the scenes is more fun than anything that can see daylight in the air; playing with these guys and talking about different things that are not necessarily relevant to basketball. The energy level of a Bruce Pearl for the wisdom of a Rick Barnes for the presence of John Calipari and then a guy like Frank Martin, which I think is one of the favorite coaches of all of us, because when you talk to him about life, he seems to have some control over life as a whole. “
Countdown to tip visualization: South Carolina at LSU | Gamecocks gathering around Shingler as the season resumes
Counting Saturday’s LSU competition, South Carolina has 14 competitions scheduled and three pending. Gamecocks spent more days out of the game and on the training ground than they did. They played the fewest games in the league, four less than the next smallest schedule. The hope is that the third break in team activity since early December will be the last.
South Carolina remaining calendar
Saturday, January 16 – at LSU – 8:30 pm
Tuesday, January 19th – in Missouri – 19h
Saturday, January 23 – Auburn – 12:00
Wednesday, January 27 – Georgia 19h
Saturday, January 30 – in Vanderbilt – 8:30 pm
Wednesday, February 3 – in Florida – 6:30 pm
Saturday, February 6 – State of Mississippi – 3:30 pm
Tuesday, February 9 – Alabama – 6:30 pm
Saturday, February 13 – Ole Miss – 18h
Tuesday, February 16 – in Tennessee – 8:30 pm
Saturday, February 20 – Missouri – 2pm or 4pm
Wednesday, February 24 – in the state of Mississippi – 19h
Saturday, February 27 – in Georgia – 1 pm
Tuesday, March 2 – Arkansas – 6:30 pm
TBD – in Kentucky
TBD – in Ole Miss
TBD – Tennessee
March 10-14 – SEC Tournament (Nashville)
* bold denotes home games
Stay tuned on TheBigSpur.com to see an article about Morgan’s broadcasting career, which will include some of his favorite Gamecock gaming memories.