South Carolina’s basketball team is changing ahead of the 2021 season.
Frank Martin and the South Carolina basketball team experienced a low year in 2020, hobbling to a 1-2 start before having the next month of the season ended due to COVID. The pandemic affected Gamecocks more than almost all other teams in the country, which led to limited practice time, a short list of players and a technical team that wasted time in the middle of the season.
The team struggled to recover, resulting in a final record of 6 to 15 and 12th in the SEC, the worst since Martin’s first season at Columbia. To make things even more disappointing, it was the fact that many considered Gamecocks to be a possible NCAA tournament team before the start of the season.
Martin’s future with the Gamecocks was in doubt after the end of the year, but now it looks like he will have at least one more season as a South Carolina coach. If the pressure of being on the hot seat wasn’t enough, it’s becoming clear that Martin may be rebuilding a squad that has already seen three players announce that they may not be back in 2021. And don’t think that Carolina fans or management athletes, for that matter, will be giving the tenth year head coach a long rein, even though he is struggling to build a productive team during the off-season.
Things started when junior striker Keyshawn Bryant announced that he would put his name on the NBA Draft. On the surface, it seemed like a success for the Gamecock squad, but Bryant does not intend to hire an agent, which means he can return if he does not receive the feedback he is looking for from NBA offices. It is a process that Martin is familiar with, as AJ Lawson has done this in each of the past two seasons before returning to Columbia.
But in the past two days, Gamecocks have seen two budding contributors enter the transfer portal. Jalyn McCreary and Trae Hannibal announced earlier this week that they would be looking for new homes during this off-season. Hannibal was the first, and his announcement hurts the depth in the backcourt, but McCreary is certainly the biggest success of the two.
South Carolina lacked manpower for most of the year, and losing one of its best scoring options will be difficult to overcome. McCreary scored double digits in each of his last three games with the Gamecocks, including a season 15 record against Ole Miss in the SEC tournament.
With McCreary gone, Martin has only four real post-game players in Wildens Leveque, Alanzo Frink, Javon Benson and Tre-Vaughn Minott. Frink missed the last 18 games of the season with an undisclosed illness, and his health is a question mark in the future. Benson is a freshman who had limited action, while Minott joined the team in the middle of the year and played only eight games. Leveque is currently the only player on last season’s list to make a real impact.
And that may not be the end of the line for the South Carolina basketball team’s matches. Many program participants are predicting a massive exodus from last year’s team, with no one knowing what the future holds for players like AJ Lawson, Justin Minaya and Jermaine Couisnard.
It is now clear that Martin is returning to Colombia, so hopefully he can find a way to keep most of his collaborators. In any case, it is clear that he will have to reload the list by accessing the transfer portal with force in the coming months. Although Martin signed one of his best classes in South Carolina in the last cycle, it is difficult to rely on freshmen to make an immediate impact, especially in painting where Gamecocks need help the most.
It looks like Martin has already kicked off some potential customers, as reports emerged of him being in communication with some players on the move in 2021. He will need to hit some instant impact type contributors to avoid a complete rebuild next year.
We will have to see how the rest of the off-season will unfold for the program, but whatever the case may be, it looks like Martin will have his work cut out for him in the coming months. And, save for an appearance at the NCAA tournament next year, your time wandering backstage in Columbia may be coming to an end.