At least six schools have reached out to Gamecocks' freshman forward
After speaking to South Carolina freshman forward Anthony Gill Wednesday night, Rick Lewis, Gill’s former Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) coach, didn’t have all of the answers as far as where Gill would be taking his talents next season.
Lewis just offered to help Gill in any way he could, as Gill, who started the bulk of his freshman season, is now going through the recruiting process all over again. With the firing of Darrin Horn and the subsequent hiring of USC coach Frank Martin, Gill has been granted permission to speak with other schools about a potential transfer.
“We’re going to allow Anthony to go through the recruiting process again, and South Carolina will be involved in that,” Martin said in a statement.
A week and a half into that process, Gill told Lewis that he has heard from Virginia, North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Clemson and Ohio State. At South Carolina, he averaged 7.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 25.3 minutes per game.
Lewis said that he didn’t ask Gill what his reasons were for wanting a transfer, but guessed at his reasons for choosing South Carolina in the first place, including that the old USC coaching staff made Gill a priority, recruiting him earlier than other schools.
“I think he was recruited by coach Horn to South Carolina, and that’s one of the reasons why he chose South Carolina,” Lewis said. “If [Gill] would have waited in the recruiting process and wouldn’t have committed earlier, he would’ve been a hot commodity by ACC schools. I think he felt some sense of loyalty to coach Horn, but he also picked the school as well. I think it’s just a situation where he wants to be recruited all over again more than anything else. Since there’s a transition and there’s a change, it’s good for him to explore his options. I don’t know whether or not he’s still considering South Carolina.”
The Charlotte native opted to stay close to home by choosing USC, and Lewis said that he doesn’t think Gill will want to go too far if he transfers. Lewis said Gill might choose somewhere that’s farther from Charlotte than Columbia is, but probably not by much.
As far as Martin and his coaching persona, Lewis doesn’t see that as being a factor. Martin is known for his intense personality on the court, as well as his occasional rants off it, or as he said in his introductory press conference, “the six seconds you see on ESPN.”
“He listens very well and I don’t think coach Martin, as the coach, really had a lot to do with it,” Lewis said. “I think [Gill] can play for anybody with his personality. He’s such an easy-going kid. He’s such a hard worker. He’s the type of kid that, I don’t care who you are, but it’s hard to yell at him. He’s always wanting to do the best he can do, and when he does make a mistake, he’s the first one to mop off and acknowledge that. I don’t think that has too much bearing to it because I think he could play for any coaching style in the country.”
Lewis said he didn’t go into details with Gill about where he was leaning for next year, but acknowledged that Virginia is the perceived favorite. Lewis said Virginia was a favorite of Gill’s early on in his recruitment out of high school. Virginia didn’t contact Gill as early as USC did because the Cavaliers were going through a coaching change at the time, where current coach Tony Bennett had to recruit the 2010 class immediately and couldn’t focus as much on the 2011 class. Nevertheless, it was still one of Gill’s favorites.
“The only think I can do is speculate,” Lewis said. “I just think he’s going to be wide open in the process. Everybody’s speculating Virginia, but (North) Carolina is interested in him. It’d be hard to not look at [UNC] real serious, too. (North) Carolina is still Carolina. Y’all think you’re Carolina, but UNC is still UNC.”