South Carolina basketball got another win against Monmouth to start its season 3-0. But just as every game has ended with a victory for Frank Martin and his team, it has also started the same way, too, as once again Chris Silva and Maik Kotsar got themselves into foul trouble early in the game.
This win over Monmouth marks the third game that Silva and Kotsar have both picked up at least two fouls each in the first half. This early foul trouble has greatly reduced their minutes played, as they have yet to combine to play more than 17 minutes in a first half this season.
When asked what he is telling his two big men to try and fix the early foul trouble, Martin was extremely frank: “Don’t foul. Don’t foul.”
South Carolina performs much better when their two starting big men are out on the floor together. In the first half against Monmouth, Silva and Kotsar played together for exactly six minutes. In these six minutes though, South Carolina was plus 11 points. In the other 14 minutes of the half, they were minus-five.
Overall on the night, South Carolina scored 16 more points than Monmouth when both Kotsar and Silva were on the court.
“Chris is too valuable a player for us to be in foul trouble,” said Martin after the game.
Martin also commented on Kotsar’s individual play, pointing out that he has more fouls than rebounds on the season, and made sure to point out that that was a problem.
Yet unlike previous games, coach Martin was much less critical of the fouls that were committed by his two big men. He attributed the early fouls they acquired this game to the Monmouth guards and the style of offense employed by the Hawks.
“These guys are just good. They come at you. With their ball screens, they put your bigs in some difficult situations. Chris’s fouls were not bad today. Neither were Maik’s,” said Martin. “We can live with the fouls they committed today.”
Despite the early foul trouble that limited him to only 21 minutes of playing time, Silva was still able to finish with a double double, scoring 10 points and recording 10 rebounds before eventually fouling out late in the second half. Kotsar finished the night with four points, two rebounds and one assist on 26 minutes.
Both Silva and Kotsar will look to stop the trend of early fouls in the coming games to help continue this hot start to the season.