Chance to knock off top-25 team at home presents itself
The second of two free throws dropped, and the scoreboard illuminated a 68-62 Gamecock advantage over No. 1 Kentucky. The remaining 1.9 seconds expired, and students rushed the court of Colonial Life Arena, relishing in the Gamecocks’ upset of the Wildcats.
That was four years ago. But, like this year’s matchup against No. 17 Kentucky, South Carolina was reeling after three consecutive losses in conference play.
After rattling off back-to-back wins earlier this year, the Gamecocks have lost their last three games to Arkansas, Georgia and Auburn, losing by an average of more than 13 points.
Amidst the losses, head coach Frank Martin maintains that the team is doing the best with what it currently has.
“We’re still a work in progress as a program,” Martin said. “We continue to mix and match, trying, to a certain extent, to fit square pegs in round holes. That’s who we are right now. And it’s our job to make it work with what we’ve got.”
To slow down Kentucky’s potent offense, the Gamecocks will need to slow dynamic freshman forward Julius Randle. The 6-foot-9 225-pound McKinney, Texas, native was the top-ranked power forward coming out of the 2013 class, and he has not disappointed, averaging a double-double each time he steps foot on the court.
Randle leads the Wildcats (21-7, 11-4 SEC) in both points, with 15.7 per game, and rebounds, with 10.3 per game. He ranks 13th in the nation in rebounds, with 288, the fourth most by a freshman in program history.
The freshman phenom is coming off the second SEC Player of the Week award of his young career after posting his 15th double-double of the season against Arkansas.
Randle is complemented by two guards, James Young and Aaron Harrison, who can score seemingly at will. Young has put up 14.4 points per game, and Harrison has scored 13.6 per game.
The Gamecocks (10-18, 3-12 SEC) will try to end the season on a high note, as they have an opportunity to upset Kentucky and top-ranked Florida in consecutive home games.
Almost assuredly, the only thing on Martin’s mind this week will be trying to upend Kentucky on Saturday. The coach prides himself on his ability to keep his team focused on the task at hand.
“If I start looking at our schedule like you just described it, you get overwhelmed,” Martin said in response to a question about looking ahead. “And if I get overwhelmed, I can’t expect my guys, at age 18, to believe that there’s doable things in our future.”
The future continues to be a focus of the team as a whole. Sindarius Thornwell’s freshman campaign gives Martin and the Gamecocks something to build off of. Thornwell has totaled 377 points on the season and leads South Carolina in assists with 82. Senior guard Brenton Williams continues to lead the country with a free-throw percentage of 95.6 percent.
Though this season has resulted in more losses than South Carolina had hoped, Martin has praised the fan turnout throughout the season.
“Our fans are starting to come,” Martin said. “If you go with the number of fans in our building this year … if you put that same number in every SEC arena, you’ve probably sold out 80 percent of those arenas. So, our fans our doing a pretty good job. We just have to continue to grow as a program.”