South Carolina basketball starts its 2020-21 roster on Wednesday.
Frank Martin and the Gamecocks will begin their 2020-21 college basketball season on Wednesday, when they meet the Coker Cobras at the Colonial Life Arena. The screening is scheduled for 6:30 pm and will be available to watch on the ESPN app.
Although the contest does not count towards the overall record for Gamecocks, it does offer a tuning game before South Carolina travels to Kansas City this weekend to participate in the Hall of Fame Classic, alongside Liberty, TCU and Tulsa.
This will be the start of Frank Martin’s ninth season at the helm, with the Gamecock manager posting a general record of 147-119 in Columbia. Coach Martin believes he has his strongest team since the 2017 Final Four race, with eight of Gamecocks’ top ten scorers a year ago returning to campus.
Junior guard AJ Lawson leads the way, having led the team in each of its first two seasons. The Canadian has an average of 13.4 points per game in his 60 career games.
Behind are also shipowners Jermaine Couisnard (12.1 pt / g) and Trae Hannibal (4.0 pt / g), strikers Keyshawn Bryant (9.1 pt / g) and Justin Minaya (7.8 pt / g) , and the great Alanzo Frink (5.3 pt / g) and Jalyn McCreary (4.1 pt / g).
The Gamecocks also received a reinforcement from senior guard Seventh Woods, who was out for the past season after a transfer from the University of North Carolina. Woods was one of the best recruits in the country from Hammond High, Columbia, and won a national championship with Tar Heels in 2017. The fourth year player averaged 1.8 points and 1.5 assists per game in his career at UNC.
Coker brings to the city a team that won seven games a year ago as a member of the South Atlantic Conference. The Cobras ended the season in 7-19, with a 6-16 mark in the league game. Coach Jarred Merrill is in his second season with the team as he tries to turn the show into a candidate.
The team has already started its 2020-21 season, having shared its first two games against Carson-Newman University (W) and Lincoln Memorial (L), Division II’s No. 2 team.
The Cobras return the second highest scorer Chandler Lindsey, who scored 13.4 points per game from his guard position in 2019. He has averaged 16 points in contests so far in 2020. Juniors Malcolm Kennedy and Dakota are also back Jennings. Jennings led the team in recovery, while Kennedy averaged 11.2 points per competition last season.
Gamecocks should be able to win this game with ease, as a veteran group faces a defeated opponent. South Carolina hopes to play well and gain momentum as it heads towards the official start of the 2020-21 season.