USC coach Frank Martin unhappy with performance
After listening to South Carolina coach Frank Martin’s remarks after the Gamecocks’ game against Morgan State, it would be natural to assume USC lost.
Instead, the Gamecocks won 87-71, outrebounding the Bears by 13 and shooting 53 percent from the field.
Martin began his postgame press conference by apologizing to fans for wasting their money and time on watching USC play. He said things started to go wrong yesterday in practice.
“I’m embarrassed by our performance,” Martin said. “We probably could have had a kindergarten class be more enthusiastic and more disciplined in practice yesterday than our team. And I’m one of those guys that truly believe that you perform the way you practice and we obviously performed that way today.
“Nothing away from Morgan State, but we didn’t do one thing that we talk about doing to help our team figure out a way to win games.”
Martin said the Gamecocks “disrespected the game. One positive for Martin was USC getting 13 offensive rebounds compared to the Bears’ six.
“When you have speed, you can neutralize size,” Martin said. “If you’re like me, fat and slow, you can’t neutralize size. If we can get those long rebounds, we get opportunities in the open court and then it’s about basketball players making basketball plays.”
Junior RJ Slawson scored six points in the first six minutes of the second half after Martin publicly expressed his desire to be more active in the offense. The forward had just two points in the first half. Martin said Slawson had some mental lapses against the Bears, such as substituting in for the wrong player and playing the wrong defense.
“We need RJ to be a good player for us,” Martin said. “He’s got the ability and he’s had real good moments for us in practice and he had some good moments today.”
The beginning of the second half was an important stretch for USC as it was finally able to open up a lead after the Bears had closed the first half on a 14-7 run to cut the Gamecock lead to four.
After USC went on an 8-0 run 75 percent of the way through the first half, Morgan State returned the favor to cut the Gamecock lead back down to three.
Turning the ball over 13 times in the first half, USC only gave it away seven times in the second half. The Gamecocks forced 20 turnovers. USC was 21-of-26 from the free throw line.
“It’s very important,” junior guard Brian Richardson said. “Anytime we are in a close game, free throw shooting is important. It decides whether you win or lose.”
Though USC is off to its first 2-0 start in three years, Martin said his team must do a better job of representing what South Carolina basketball stands for the next time they play.
“I’m on this team all the time about, you have to have pride,” Martin said. “What do you stand for? Who do you represent? Those are the questions I ask this team on a daily basis. And today, we didn’t represent anything, we didn’t stand for anything, and we didn’t have any pride in our concepts and who we are. We just played, and that’s unacceptable.”