Bed-Stuy guy now a Garden star
Rakym Felder’s best friend the past few days has been his smartphone. It has to be. The former Lincoln High star from Bedford-Stuyvesant is the only player in the East Region games at Madison Square Garden from the metropolitan area. If he spoke to every family member, friend and bandwagon jumper, he wouldn’t take care of business on the court and worse, he would have to answer to his South Carolina coach, Frank Martin.
Asked if growing up in Brooklyn prepared him to play on college basketball’s biggest stage, Felder quipped, “It prepared me for Frank Martin. You don’t want to let him down.’’
Felder did not let Martin or his Gamecocks teammates down in Friday night’s 70-50 dismantling of Baylor. Felder scored nine points on 4-of-7 shooting, grabbed four rebounds, had one assist, one steal and committed two turnovers in 24 minutes.
“I heard about the turnovers,’’ Felder said.
The Gamecocks (25-10), the No. 7 seed in the region, will need Felder to offset the terrific guard play of No. 4 Florida (27-8) in Sunday’s regional final.
“We have two of the fastest guys in college basketball,’’ Florida coach Mike White said of guards Kasey Hill and Chris Chiozza.
At 5-foot-10, 210 pounds, Felder is not as fast as the Gators’ guards, but he is pit-bull strong and relentless. Felder’s development has allowed South Carolina to be the most disruptive defensive force left in the tournament, now that West Virginia was eliminated.
Felder said Martin preaches defense, defense and defense. The Gamecocks full-court-press the majority of practices. Martin will practice with five defensive players on seven offensive players.
“You can’t get beat. He expects not to get beat on fiveon-seven, so when it’s in the game he doesn’t want to get beat five-on-five or you’re definitely coming out of the game. I know for myself, as a freshman, I’m coming right out. So every time I go in the game, I try to lock down defensively.’’
According to Roselle (N.J.) Catholic assistant coach Tommy Sacks, the man who brought Chris Silva from his native Gabon to the Jersey high school, the first words the forward said upon landing at John F. Kennedy Airport in 2012 were, “I go NBA.’’
Silva, now a starting forward for the Gamecocks, is getting a taste of the pros. South Carolina is using the Knicks’ locker room at the Garden and Silva was told by The Post that he is using Carmelo Anthony’s stall.
“Back home you don’t even get to see NBA games, so when I got here it was like magical seeing NBA games,’’ Silva said. “I didn’t know I was in Carmelo’s locker. It can’t be true. That’s way beyond my thinking.’’