Martin aims to avoid losing 5th straight game for first time in collegiate coaching career
Frank Martin hasn’t lost five games in a row since his first year as a coach.
Going into tonight’s matchup with LSU, the South Carolina men’s basketball team has lost four consecutive games. Martin will try to avoid an unpleasant first when the Gamecocks host the Tigers at 7 p.m.
Martin compared this season to his first as a head coach, when he was leading a junior varsity team.
The JV team started out 7-2 but then lost its next seven games. Martin said that as a 20-year-old, he “did not know how to handle” the losing streak. After he went back to fundamentals, Martin’s team won its last four games of the season. The first-year coach for USC has gone back to the basics for this year’s team, particularly on offense, where the Gamecocks have struggled mightily.
USC (12-11, 2-8 SEC) is averaging just 52 points per game over the past four games after averaging 71.6 ppg through the first 19 games of the season.
According to Martin, the 39-point shellacking at Florida was the beginning of the offensive meltdown.
“Going into Florida, we were playing pretty good offensively, pretty good defensively, but since the 12-minute mark of the first half of that game, we have gotten deflated,” Martin told reporters. “We have lost that edge that we had worked so hard to build. I think it has affected our offense, our defense — it has affected everything.”
The Gamecocks will get their first rematch of the season against LSU (13-8, 4-6). Luckily for USC, the Tigers are one of two SEC teams the Gamecocks have beaten this year.
On Jan. 16, USC traveled to Baton Rouge, La., and defeated LSU 82-73 in overtime. Martin hopes that victory can give his team some much-needed confidence.
“We were able to play halfway decent against them,” Martin said. “But they have gotten a lot better. We just have to make sure that we understand who we are and be able to play through our strengths. (Hopefully we can) kind of reach back and see some of the things that we were able to do in a successful way the first time we played.”
Freshman Michael Carrera has become the focal point of the Gamecock offense over the past four games. He leads the team in rebounds (7.2) and is second in command in scoring per game (11.1). Martin said the Venezuelan native hates to lose, and that is why he has played so well over the past four games.
“What’s crazy is that he is never in the right place offensively half the time,” Martin said. “But he has that sense of courage that you have to have. He’s learning; he is a freshman. You are asking a freshman to perform like a senior.”
Carrera had the best game of his young career the first time USC played the Tigers. The freshman scored a career-high 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
Martin said he saw some of that desire against Tennessee, particularly in rebounding. The first-year coach for USC said that needs to happen every game because there isn’t a “difference maker” on this year’s team.
“That means we have to play offense through our energy,” Martin said. “We have to sprint faster than our opponents, we have to screen better than our opponents and whenever we get a chance, we have to go rebound the ball.”