Few teams in the Southeastern Conference have struggled as mightily as South Carolina, who beat Missouri 65-60 Tuesday night, has thus far.
In fact, only Missouri has.
The Tigers are dead last in SEC play and are now 0-5 in conference road games after their loss to South Carolina.
The Gamecocks are not much better, however, as they sit in second-to-last place in the conference. South Carolina had lost six of its last seven games entering Tuesday’s matchup, which caused head coach Frank Martin to challenge members of his team to step into leadership roles.
“Leadership is who’s willing to stand up and embrace the moment,” Martin said Monday afternoon before the game. “Who’s willing to stand up in front of their peers and say, ‘Hey, enough of this. We’re doing this like this because I said so. And I’m going to start doing it myself.’ And that’s what we’re searching for.”
After the team’s victory over Missouri, Martin thinks he has found leadership in the form of 6-foot-5 guard Sindarius Thornwell, who led the team with 14 points and finished tied for the team lead in assists with six.
Thornwell knocked down six of 12 field goals, also converting on a pair of threes, the latter of which extended a three-point Gamecock lead to a six-point advantage with just over two minutes to play.
In Thornwell’s second season with South Carolina, Martin is finally seeing welcomed flashes of leadership in his second-year guard.
“Last week put a dent in our sails. The last 10 minutes against Vanderbilt kind of hurt some guys’ feelings,” Martin said of the team’s 65-50 loss to Vanderbilt. “You could either take the ball, go home and cry or you could man up and tighten your pants up and come in here and say, ‘You know what, that’s embarrassing; that’s not happening anymore,’ which is what Sindarius did.”
It makes sense that Thornwell is the one stepping up to fill a leadership role for South Carolina. Thornwell, a four-star recruit coming out of high school, was Martin’s biggest get in his first two recruiting classes and spent his freshman year getting acclimated to the college game.
Now that Thornwell has established himself as a playmaker for the Gamecocks, Martin is hoping that he'll take the next step and help South Carolina end its current funk by re-establishing the confidence the team was playing with before SEC play.
Beating a team the Gamecocks had not beaten in the history of the program is a step in the right direction.
“A win always boosts your confidence,” Thornwell said. “I think right now in the locker room (there are) good vibes; everybody is happy right now and feeling good about themselves. We’re just ready to come in a practice Thursday.”
A rematch against No. 1 Kentucky awaits South Carolina. The game will be in Lexington, Kentucky where the undefeated Wildcats hold a suffocating home court advantage.
With his team headed in the right direction, Martin knows he needs to assist the young sophomore in leading the team.
“Now my job,” Martin said, “since he’s decided to step forward — not just by how he played, but he was vocal throughout the game. He was relentless during timeouts, trying to get guys engaged — now it’s my job, now that he stepped forward, to help him manage that job. I’ve got to help him there.”