Team littered with underclassmen
Before South Carolina’s first official team practice of the 2013-14 season Monday, coach Frank Martin was asked about his concern about the overall youth of his team this season.
“Take a look at what I looked like the day I got hired and see what I look like now,” Martin said. “The hair’s a little whiter and there’s a bigger spot on the top of my head.”
Guards Brenton Williams and Bruce Ellington will be the only two seniors on the roster this season. However, Ellington is busy playing wide receiver on the football team and won’t return to the team until the season is well underway.
Martin said the surplus of freshman and sophomores, which make up 12 of the 16 players on the roster, will not hold the Gamecocks back this year.
“New guys are part of the business,” Martin said. “The part that makes the business easier to do year to year is the returning guys, and we have a core group of guys that played major minutes last year. They comprehend me and I comprehend them, and there is direction for those first-year guys.”
The second-year coach said that was an improvement from the start of last season, when both Martin and the players were still figuring each other out. Now, sophomores such as Michael Carrera and Mindaugas Kacinas can tell the incoming freshman what to expect.
During this first week of the official season, Martin is keeping the goals simple.
“Pass it to the guys on your team, maybe make a layup; we missed so many of them last year,” Martin said. “But we’re really just getting guys to continue to understand what we’re doing. A huge part is terminology. Those young guys have to grasp terminology.”
The freshman may get a wake-up call this week, as Martin pointed out that practices aren’t as laid-back as summer workouts and preseason workouts.
The Gamecocks are trying to improve on last year’s 14-18 overall record and 4-14 SEC record. Former coach Darrin Horn’s last team went 10-21 and 2-14 in the SEC in 2011.
Martin doesn’t see the less than .500 record from last year as a failure, but rather as the start of a new era.
“You might view last season as a struggle; I viewed it as us laying a foundation,” Martin said. “Some people might say, ‘Well, your team wasn’t any good,’ and I’m going to tell you that I thought we were OK. Now, if you want to judge me and my team based on the record, that’s fine. But we laid a foundation for what we’re about. It’s not about disregarding last year; it’s about embracing last year and continuing to build.”
Martin also pointed out that the Gamecocks were dead last in the league when he arrived and said, “We weren’t going from last to first in three months.”
Now with a season under his belt, Martin is being patient and looking forward to the growth that he expects out of his team this upcoming season.
“Nobody expects to win more than me — nobody,” Martin said. “I don’t put expectations on records; I don’t put expectations on anything that’s materialistic. My expectations are for this program to compete for a SEC championship. When that happens, I don’t know. But that’s my expectation every day.”