Frank Martin is done messing around. As March nears and the SEC race begins its sprint to the finish line, Martin seems to have decided that the formula to winning this year is by playing those who have won in past years and sitting those who have not.
On Saturday against Florida, you could tell from the announcement of starting lineups that this game was straying from the norm. After getting blown out by a coachless Kentucky team and an ugly loss to a just plain bad Missouri team, it’s really hard to argue with Martin for trying something new. It’s also hard to argue against the changes he made. Martin chose to start junior guard Duane Notice over the normal starter freshman PJ Dozier, a move that made complete sense after Dozier’s lackluster 5-14 shooting, two-assist performance against Missouri, and Notice’s 21-point, six-rebound breakout performance off the bench.
But the changes didn’t stop there. Combined, the three freshmen who had been getting quality time as of late (Dozier, Chris Silva and Jamaal Gregory) were on the court for just nine minutes of play against Florida, which, to put in perspective, is less than what both Dozier and Silva average individually per game on the season.
With these changes in place, the Gamecocks were able to pull out a win against Florida that was anything but easy. And while at times they did seem to be missing the playmaking of Dozier, the shot blocking of Silva and the spark usually provided by Gregory, in the end, the experience they had seemed to trump what they missed. A youthful team would have struggled to remain poised coming out of halftime after allowing for an 18-0 run to end the first half. But the Gamecocks seemed poised as ever. An inexperienced team would have gotten frustrated upon hitting an extended drought early in the second half. But the Gamecocks just locked down on defense harder to make up for it. And a freshmen-led team would have probably collapsed as Florida seemed to match every shot the Gamecocks made late in the game, but led by Michael Carrera, Notice and Sindarius Thornwell, each shot that Florida matched just seemed like motivation for the Gamecocks to come back down again and drill an even bigger big shot.
If this is Martin’s plan going forward, one has to wonder if this team will be able to stay fresh with its extremely shortened bench and greatly increased minutes on starters. On Saturday, you could already see these added minutes taking their toll, as senior forward Laimonas Chatkevicius (who normally splits minutes with Silva) checked himself out of the game many times, and Carrera began crouching at half-court late in the game, trying to get any kind of rest, only to have Coach Martin get on him for doing so.
Now the future of this team rests in the hands of those Frank Martin trusts most, while the freshmen, the future of the program, sit and watch from the bench. It’s a tactical gamble by Martin that so far looks like a good one. Let's just hope its goodness lasts.