South Carolina basketball: Gamecocks open season with Coker
By Jacob Elsey
South Carolina basketball begins its 2020-21 slate on Wednesday.
Frank Martin and the Gamecocks will begin their 2020-21 college basketball season on Wednesday when they meet the Coker Cobras in Colonial Life Arena. The exhibition is set to tip at 6:30 PM and will be available to watch on the ESPN app.
Though the contest won’t count towards the overall record for the Gamecocks, it does offer a bit of a tune up game before South Carolina travels to Kansas City this weekend to participate in the Hall of Fame Classic, alongside Liberty, TCU, and Tulsa.
This will be the start of Frank Martin’s ninth season at the helm, with the Gamecock head coach posting an overall record of 147-119 in Columbia. Coach Martin believes that he has his deepest team since the 2017 Final Four run, as eight of the Gamecocks’ top ten scorers from a year ago are back on campus.
Junior shooting guard AJ Lawson leads the way, having led the team in scoring each of his first two seasons. The Canadian has averaged 13.4 points a game in his 60 career appearances.
Back, too, are point guards Jermaine Couisnard (12.1 pt/g) and Trae Hannibal (4.0 pt/g), forwards Keyshawn Bryant (9.1 pt/g) and Justin Minaya (7.8 pt/g), and bigs Alanzo Frink (5.3 pt/g) and Jalyn McCreary (4.1 pt/g).
The Gamecocks also get a boost from senior guard Seventh Woods, who sat out all of last season following a transfer from the University of North Carolina. Woods was one of the top recruits in the country coming out of Hammond High in Columbia, and went on to win a national championship with the Tar Heels in 2017. The fourth year player averaged 1.8 points and 1.5 assists a game in his career with UNC.
Coker brings to town a team that won seven games a year ago as a member of the South Atlantic Conference. The Cobras finished the season at 7-19, with a 6-16 mark in league play. Head coach Jarred Merrill is in his second season with the team as he tries to build the program into a contender.
The team has already started its 2020-21 season, having split its first two games against Carson-Newman University (W) and Lincoln Memorial (L), the No. 2 team in Division II.
The Cobras return second-leading scorer Chandler Lindsey, who posted 13.4 points a game from his guard position in 2019. He’s averaging 16 points a contests so far in 2020. Also back are juniors Malcolm Kennedy and Dakota Jennings. Jennings led the team in rebounding, while Kennedy averaged 11.2 points a contest last season.
The Gamecocks should be able to win this game with ease, as a veteran group takes on an overmatched opponent. South Carolina hopes to play well and build some momentum as they head into the official start of the 2020-21 season.