Gamecocks enter season with young roster
Malik Cooke has set the expectations high for South Carolina’s men’s basketball team. As the lone senior on the 2011-12 squad, Cooke wants to exit on a high note.
More significantly, his teammates don’t want him leaving the program any other way.
“Our expectations are getting better as a team and to not let Malik go out on a bad year,” said freshman forward Anthony Gill. “We definitely just have to keep fighting through that and fight for Malik.”
Among the youngest teams in the country, the Gamecocks will have an uphill battle in its pursuit for a successful season, but for coach Darrin Horn, progress is more important than the end result.
“I think our expectations are what we want them to be every year,” Horn said. “We want to be better and we want to continue to build our program. We want to improve and we want to watch our young people develop and continue to make progress. I’ve said repeatedly, the disappointing thing last year for me as a coach above and beyond any record was that it was the first time I didn’t feel like we had a team that had got better towards the end.”
One of the steepest parts of the uphill battle for the Gamecocks will be the initial absence of point guard Bruce Ellington, who will be practicing with the football team through the end of the season. Nevertheless, Horn doesn’t see the absence and subsequent abrupt return as something that will be difficult for his team.
“Just coach the guys you have,” Horn said. “That would be true if it was an injury or whatever it might be. On the front end, we don’t have him, so that’s just how we have to coach the team. When he comes back, we’ll just have to see how that goes. Hopefully it will be a seamless transition, he’ll flow into things and it will be great. I don’t think anyone knows that. It will be unfair of anybody to put that expectation on him.”
Sophomore Eric Smith is expected to start in place of Ellington throughout the beginning of the season. Even without Ellington, Horn sees the team as one loaded with versatility and athleticism.
“There may be times we throw our five best players out there regardless of position,” Horn said. “There may be times we go really small with a terrific offensive lineup. There may be times when we go big. Who knows with Damontre Harris, Anthony Gill, R.J. Slawson, Malik Cooke and Lakeem Jackson. That’s a huge athletic lineup. Will that ever happen? I don’t know, but those are the things that are exciting about this team.”
Joining Gill as new additions to the squad are freshman guard Damien Leonard and transfer guard Brenton Williams. Horn said that one of the hardest adjustments for freshmen are the mental aspects of the game, which is something that the veterans of the team have already stressed to the newcomers.
“It’s not going to be easy,” Jackson said. ”Every game is going to be tough. It’s not like high school. That’s pretty much the only thing I’ve been telling them. Just to be prepared.”
Despite the youth of the team, Jackson wants to win more games than the team did last year and to be in a position for an invitation to the NCAA tournament. He also wants to see the team succeed for its leader.
“[Cooke] is our only senior and we want to win a lot of games so he can go out a winner,” Jackson said. “I want the same things for me next year when I’m a senior.”
For Cooke, it’s also about progression – leaving the program in a better place than when he joined it.
“We’re setting our expectations pretty high,” Cooke said. “I don’t want to go out losing and we don’t want to have another losing season here. We’re definitely going to work hard and try to turn things around here.”