Florida just captured one of their biggest and most emotion fueled wins of the season on Saturday against the #11 ranked West Virginia Mountaineers and they’ll be anxiously looking to keep the momentum rolling on Wednesday at 6:30 ET when they take on the South Carolina Gamecocks.
The win over West Virginia was Florida’s second victory over a ranked ball club with their first coming in a blowout over #6 Tennessee. The wins, augmented with victories over Georgia and Vanderbilt, were enough for the Gators to enter the AP Poll for the first time this season at #22. This is a more experienced group than the one a year ago that didn’t seem to handle success particularly well, and they’ll be desperately trying to not only protect their ranking but climb in the polls.
South Carolina will offer the Gators the chance at doing this. The Gamecocks have had as tough a time as any team in the country this season with COVID stoppages with multiple breaks totalling several weeks in missed time. They’ve only just completed their 10th game of the season and the disjointed stop and start nature of their season has done nothing to help them with their rhythm. Perhaps the person most affected has been coach Frank Martin who has contracted the virus twice, with both times bringing some fairly severe symptoms. During his first bout he ended up losing his hair, so there is a chance you see a much different looking coach on the sideline Wednesday than the one you have come to know.
Frank Martin is as familiar a face as there is on an SEC sideline, one of the longest tenured SEC bench bosses who is now the Dean of SEC coaches. With his long SEC tenure he has established a noticeable culture and style of play–one of toughness, physicality, and pace.
This year’s team brings the level of scrappiness you have come to know from the Gamecocks, led by forwards Justin Minaya and Keyshawn Bryant, two gritty swingmen who play much bigger than their listed frames. Due to injuries and roster makeup Minaya, listed generously at 6’6”, has even had to play some minutes at center. Despite being undersized he doesn’t give up anything in the rebounding or shot blocking department which allows Coach Martin to play him there. He may have trouble with the much longer Colin Castleton and Omar Payne on the glass but you can be sure he’s going to battle every step of the way and you shouldn’t be surprised if he ends up getting a lot more rebounds and blocked shots than you would expect.
Bryant, while plenty tough, is more of a skilled scorer than Minaya. In South Carolina’s offense he’ll come off curls and look to get going downhill where he can barrel towards the hoop and either finish strong or draw a foul. In fact, drawing fouls is something that South Carolina does as well as anyone in the country as they constantly pressure officials to use the whistle. For the Gators, a team who has committed a lot of fouls this season, this could be a definite challenge as they try to keep their best players on the floor. South Carolina knows they have a talent deficiency against the Gators and will therefore be more than happy to trade fouls and send starters to the bench, something Florida will need to be prepared for.
While many of South Carolina’s pieces are big, strong, physical players who rely on grittiness and playing in the trenches to be effective they aren’t without top shelf talent. AJ Lawson is a 6’6” guard who has had NBA buzz since he was in high school and he leads the offense for South Carolina. While he has never elevated his game quite to the point where it made sense for him to leave he has been right on the cusp and those are exactly the types of players who have great success in college. Lawson is a fantastic scorer in the pick and roll, someone who can get to his spots and shoot over the defense with his great length or create an angle with his length to thread a pass to a shooter. Florida has been extremely poor in pick and roll defense this season and Lawson is a player more than capable of hurting them in this area so he is something they’ll need to be aware of.
South Carolina isn’t a particularly talented team when it comes to scoring in the halfcourt so when the game slows down you can expect the ball to be in AJ Lawson’s hands for a pick and roll. However, if at all possible, South Carolina is going to try to make sure the game never slows down. Under Frank Martin the Gamecocks have been one of the fastest teams in the country and that’s something that has continued this season as they try to get easy points on the fast break before they have to settle into their halfcourt offense which hasn’t been particularly efficient. Lawson is a talented finisher in transition using his length to contort around shot blockers, but oftentimes it’s his backcourt mate that teams need to be particularly aware of on the fast break.
Jermaine Couisnard is a young sophomore though he has had plenty of opportunities for minutes in his young career which has allowed him to mature quickly. He’s a bigger guard at 6’4” but that doesn’t stop him from having typical point guard speed and when he pushes the ball in transition he is difficult to stop. In Frank Martin’s perfect world every defensive rebound would be dished to Couisnard to start the break with AJ Lawson leaking out for push ahead opportunities and the Gators will need to sniff out those plays and try to eliminate them and instead try to force South Carolina to score in the half court.
An X-factor type player to be aware of is senior Seventh Woods, a transfer from North Carolina.
If you look deep, deep into your memory banks that name might sound familiar. That’s because 8 years ago he made a name for himself as a 7th grader who could throw down eye-popping dunks, making him a viral sensation. Dunking with authority that early, he was labeled as someone who not only could be a future star but someone that would challenge LeBron James or Michael Jordan for greatest of all time status.
Of course, that wasn’t the case for Woods. He was never more than a seldom used rotation player at North Carolina which led him to decide to transfer to South Carolina for his senior season. While he isn’t the superstar he was once expected to be he is still a talented wing who can catch fire and put up points in a hurry–though he can also be prone to some cold spells.
South Carolina’s defense has given the Gators trouble in the past due to its aggressive nature. They will deny ball reversals and take away passing lanes, forcing guards to go one on one against a (usually) tremendous on-ball defender. Florida hasn’t had many players particularly equipped to handle that style of defense though this year things are different. Tyree Appleby and Tre Mann are both excellent one on one players who can beat their man if they try to crowd them, and if they’re able to do that South Carolina’s defense isn’t particularly equipped to help on those drives so Florida could have a lot of success.
This game will be all about Florida keeping up their energy and emotion from the game against West Virginia. They are definitely a more talented team than South Carolina and they also have had a lot more games and practices under their belt to gel. Frank Martin coached teams are always trying to make games frantic and hurried, and the Gators will need to try to play under control and at their pace. If they play to their abilities, they should be able to handle this one with relative ease.