M
Mike Uva
Guest
You don’t need to be John Wooden to know that South Carolina has struggled to have more of a presence in the paint than they would like. As a result, we’re seeing them settle for more perimeter shots.
While the Gamecocks have proven that when they’re hot, they’re capable of shooting lights out from behind the arc, it’s made them a one trick pony and when those shots aren’t dropping, we’ve seen how quickly games have got away from them.
On Monday, Frank Martin met with the media and I asked Martin why that has been the case this year. Instead of making this a longer story than it needs to be, I’ll just share the full quote from Martin, who provided a great in-sight on what has been the issue and how they’ve tried to improve it, starting with adjustments to their lineup.
Martin: “That’s one of the reasons I put Devin (Carter) into the starting lineup because we need to get the ball into the paint and that’s what Devin does as we’re trying to find consistency from our bigs.
Going into the season, I felt the center spot was gonna be raw because Wildens (Leveque) was gonna be asked to carry a different load than he’s carried in the past from a responsibility standpoint and all the other guys are freshmen (or new to our team); whether it’s Josh Gray or Ja’Von Benson, Ta’Quan Woodley, or Tre-Vaughn.
The wildcard was AJ Wilson. I thought AJ would give us more consistency on the interior, not so much of a post presence, but as an attack paint attacker and that hasn’t happened. We still have time and we’re hopeful that just kind of separating from a couple games got him to a place of peace, mentality, so he can go out there and enjoy. I think he’s practiced more like he did in October and gave us the most active minutes he’s given us in a long time against Georgia the other night.
We’ve got guys that can make jump shots but we have to get the ball in the paint. And don’t dismiss Jermaine (Couisnard) from paint scoring. He made some points in the paint against Georgia; that’s something he’s done in the past and we need him to be more consistent at doing that too. So him and (Carter) can dribble-drive it — you saw Erik (Stevenson) make a couple dribble-drive layups against Georgia and create fouls. Those are the plays we need to continue to make as our big guys continue to find consistency of (having an) offensive presence in the paint.”
While the Gamecocks have proven that when they’re hot, they’re capable of shooting lights out from behind the arc, it’s made them a one trick pony and when those shots aren’t dropping, we’ve seen how quickly games have got away from them.
On Monday, Frank Martin met with the media and I asked Martin why that has been the case this year. Instead of making this a longer story than it needs to be, I’ll just share the full quote from Martin, who provided a great in-sight on what has been the issue and how they’ve tried to improve it, starting with adjustments to their lineup.
Martin: “That’s one of the reasons I put Devin (Carter) into the starting lineup because we need to get the ball into the paint and that’s what Devin does as we’re trying to find consistency from our bigs.
Going into the season, I felt the center spot was gonna be raw because Wildens (Leveque) was gonna be asked to carry a different load than he’s carried in the past from a responsibility standpoint and all the other guys are freshmen (or new to our team); whether it’s Josh Gray or Ja’Von Benson, Ta’Quan Woodley, or Tre-Vaughn.
The wildcard was AJ Wilson. I thought AJ would give us more consistency on the interior, not so much of a post presence, but as an attack paint attacker and that hasn’t happened. We still have time and we’re hopeful that just kind of separating from a couple games got him to a place of peace, mentality, so he can go out there and enjoy. I think he’s practiced more like he did in October and gave us the most active minutes he’s given us in a long time against Georgia the other night.
We’ve got guys that can make jump shots but we have to get the ball in the paint. And don’t dismiss Jermaine (Couisnard) from paint scoring. He made some points in the paint against Georgia; that’s something he’s done in the past and we need him to be more consistent at doing that too. So him and (Carter) can dribble-drive it — you saw Erik (Stevenson) make a couple dribble-drive layups against Georgia and create fouls. Those are the plays we need to continue to make as our big guys continue to find consistency of (having an) offensive presence in the paint.”
