Gamecocks try to stop slump, make it to NCAAs

Missing three key pieces of Final Four team has hurt.

COLUMBIA, S.C.— Ayear ago, surging South Carolina was building for a run to the Final Four. These days, the Gamecocks are struggling to keep their heads above .500 after their longest losing streak in four years, which threatens to keep them out of the NCAA Tournament altogether.

Before Saturday’s shot in the arm — an 84- 75 home win against No. 10 Auburn — South Carolina (14-13, 5-9 Southeastern Conference) had lost six straight, its most consecutive defeats since Frank Martin’s second year as coach in 2013-14.

Three key members of last season’s Final Four team — guards Sindarius Thornwell, Duane Notice and P.J. Dozier — were to return to receive their Final Four rings. That all three starters moved on— Thornwell and Notice were seniors, Dozier was a rising sophomore who entered and went unpicked in last June’s NBA draft — is a big part of South Carolina’s change of fortune.

Martin has liked his players but has said his team lacks leadership.

“That’s kind of where we flfloundered,” Martin said.

With so many key pieces gone, Martin has fifilled his roster with freshmen and fifirst- year graduate transfers like guards Frank Bookerand Wesley Myers. South Carolina has had its moments of success — it defeated ranked opponents in Kentucky and Florida in a threegame stretch last month — but more often lately has found itself struggling to keep up. Three of the last four losses have come by 14 points or more.

Returning starters from last year in junior Chris Silva and sophomore Maik Kotsar and Booker, who played previously at Oklahoma and Florida Atlantic, have attempted to fifill the biggest leaders voids left by Thorn- well and Notice. Martin said it has not been a natural process for players unaccustomed to those roles.

“When you’re in the locker room with your peers, it’s not comfortable being a leader because you’re going to rub some people the wrong way,” Martin said.

The losing streak has taken its toll on the Gamecocks. Martin won’t change his approach to practice or his message that South Carolina must compete hard at practice and do the right things on the court.

“I don’t judge them based on the scores of game, I judge them on them doing stuff the right way,” he said. “And unfortunately, right now, we’re not as connected as we need to be. The scores of the game are irrelevant tome from that standpoint. It’s a matter of getting our guys to practice with a greater sense of urgency. To bemore connected as teammates, to be more understanding ofwhat we’re trying to do.”

It doesn’t help, Martin said, when the SEC is considered as strong as it’s been in years, with some projections having eight of its 14 teams make the NCAAs. That means any slip-ups by the Gamecocks have been costly. On Tuesday night, the Gamecocks wiped out most of a 14-point, second-half defificit to throwa scare into No. 18 Tennessee before losing 70-67.

“Six years ago, the SEC was a little more forgiving,” Martin said. “Now it’s not forgiving.”

And there’ll be no let up for the Gamecocks after the Tigers: South Carolina’s fifinal four opponents in Georgia, Mississippi State, LSU and at Auburn all have winning records.

Booker believes if South Carolina stays strong in practice, good things canhappen down the stretch.

“It just shows that we can be a good team if we just follow what Coach Frank talks about and preaches to us in practice,” Booker said after the Tennessee loss. “That one, we let it slip away, but we got more games to play.”