Martin: We got back to doing what we do best in Mizzou win
Saturday was far from South Carolina’s smoothest performance of the season, but considering the 81-72 victory over Missouri came three days after the Gamecocks’ abysmal performance at Alabama, Frank Martin will gladly take it.
The Gamecocks shot miserably from the perimeter (3-for-21 on 3-point attempts) and missed 11 free throws (22-33), but got to the charity stripe, dominated both sides of glass and forced Missouri into 16 turnovers while committing just 15 personal fouls.
The Gamecocks led the SEC in rebounding margin (+9.2) and defensive rebound percentage (72.6) entering Saturday, and USC lived up to the top billing by outrebounding Missouri by a 41-26 margin, yielding only five offensive rebounds to Missouri compared to 24 defensive rebounds for the Gamecocks, nearly a 5-to-1 in favor of USC.
Mostly, USC played Frank Martin style basketball, which is why the head coach was far from displeased following the game.
“I’m proud of my guys”, Martin said. “We got back in character today. I’ve never considered missing shots as the measure whether you play well or not. I thought we played well. We just kept missing shots, be it open threes, free throws, in-between shots.
“It would break our spirit for a couple of possessions, but for the most part our enthusiasm, our playing to our identity was back in place. That’s what mattered today. It wasn’t about making shots, it was about playing our kind of basketball. We weren’t great, but I thought we played more to who we are.”
In Wednesday’s loss at Alabama, none of Martin’s key indicators worked in USC’s favor. They were outrebounded by five (389-33) and managed to get to the free throw line just 17 times.
“When we play well, we play extremely hard and we compete,” Martin said. “Rebounding and free throws, that’s who we are. At Alabama, we got outrebounded and we shot 17 five throws, five or six of which happened in the last three minutes of the game. So, we needed to get back to who we are. We did that today.”
While USC’s long-range shooting was off the mark all afternoon long, when the Gamecocks shot the basketball inside the 3-point arc, the ball usually went into the basket.
On 2-point attempts, USC was 25-of-41 (61.0 percent).
The subpar outside shooting was attributable in part to USC’s stagnant offensive flow, Martin said. Too much standing around by the Gamecocks led to flat shots that clanged off the rim.
“That’s what happens when you don’t make shots,” Martin said. “Nobody wants to pull the trigger when the other team is in a zone. Guys had open shots. People zoned us a lot up until about two weeks ago. You didn’t see guys hesitating against zone before. We took good shots today, but we didn’t make them. Then we got a little hesitant.”
Between the 8:33 mark and the 1:09 mark of the second half, USC never led by more nine points, but they never allowed the Tigers to get closer than six points either. The Gamecocks finally eclipsed the double-digit mark on Mindaugus Kacinas’ conventional three-point play with 1:09 left.
“Coming down the stretch, we needed baskets because we couldn’t get a stop,” Martin said. “We continued to get baskets. I didn’t think our offense today was bad. We just missed shots.”
In the wake of the Alabama debacle, Martin said USC’s experience shined through on Saturday. A younger team might not have been able to bounce back so quickly mentally and physically after a humiliating 73-50 loss in Tuscaloosa.
“That’s why experience is so valuable,” Martin said. “You have guys that understand it’s a long season. Sindarius (Thornwell) and Michael (Carrera) have become the heartbeat of our team. They weren’t very good in the two practices leading into Alabama with their mouths or enthusiasm or discipline.
“The rest of the team followed and we took our medicine. Conversely, from the first moment of practice on Thursday, Sindarius and Michael were off the charts. Our older guys had an enthusiasm for getting back to who we are and saying this is not happening again. Everybody was good at yesterday’s practice.”
SEC SCORES (Sat. Jan. 16)
South Carolina 81, Missouri 72
Texas A&M 79, Georgia 45
Tennessee 80, Mississippi State 75
Auburn 75, Kentucky 70
Vanderbilt 71, Alabama 63
Florida 80, Ole Miss 71
LSU 76, Arkansas 74
SEC STANDINGS (After games of Jan. 16)
Texas A&M 5-0
LSU 4-1
South Carolina 3-1
Kentucky 3-2
Florida 3-2
Arkansas 3-2
Ole Miss 2-3
Georgia 2-3
Vanderbilt 2-3
Tennessee 2-3
Auburn 2-3
Alabama 1-3
Missouri 1-3
Miss. State 0-4
