Couisnard’s moment
Former East Chicago Central player’s game-winner against Kentucky announced his arrival at South Carolina
Jermaine Couisnard still isn’t sure how he made the shot. Divine inspiration perhaps. “I was stunned,” he said. “I didn’t know what to do.”
Against Kentucky on Jan. 15, the South Carolina redshirt freshman’s 3-point shot from beyond the top of the key caromed off the backboard with one second left to give the Gamecocks an 81-78 victory in Columbia, South Carolina. Couisnard had taken four dribbles to get to that spot.
He got the ball with four seconds left.
After the shot fell through, Couisnard ran all the way to the other end of the court, where his teammates mobbed him after he dove onto the floor.
It was a legacy-sealing moment for the former East Chicago Central player, who has established himself as a force on a team that is trending toward an NCAA bid. The Gamecocks were 16-10 overall and 8-5 in the Southeastern Conference through Friday. The 6-foot-4 Couisnard, the starting point guard, is averaging 12.1 points and nearly three assists.
The dramatic shot against the Wildcats was Couisnard’s breakout moment for the uninformed.
For South Carolina coach Frank Martin, it was simply affirmation of Couisnard’s immense talent.
“That shot showed other people what we already knew,” Martin said. “He’s an aggressive, confident player.”
Couisnard is anything but aggressive and outgoing in person. He speaks so softly he’s hard to hear, and he doesn’t reveal much.
Martin wasn’t quite sure what he had when he recruited Couisnard out of Montverde Academy in Florida because he was so quiet.
Then Couisnard showed up for a scrimmage in the fall of 2018 with some of the players on campus, and Couisnard was impressive.
“One of my assistants saw him play, and he said, ‘You are really going to like him. He plays with a lot of confidence,’ ” Martin said.
Couisnard flips a switch when he hits the floor.
He goes from unassuming and reserved to involved and outgoing.
Martin made him the starting point guard in a game against Tennessee on Jan. 11. Four days later, he made the shot against Kentucky.
Couisnard has just kept getting better.
Martin said that he naturally knows how to elevate his teammates.
Couisnard credits his basketball pedigree, which was formed at East Chicago Central under former coach Pete Trgovich, for his maturity.
Against Arkansas, Martin was getting on Maik Kotsar, a 6-11
senior center, for not converting some shots. Couisnard told Kotsar to get in his spot, and he was going to keep getting Kotsar the ball until he started making shots.
“Maik responded,” Martin said. “There is a freshman telling a four-year senior what to do.”
Couisnard left East Chicago Central in 2017 after helping the Cardinals win two sectionals. He spent a year at Montverde, where Martin found him through his assistant Chuck Martin — who had been an assistant for former Indiana coach Tom Crean and knew Couisnard.
Couisnard chose South Carolina over Louisville. He said Frank Martin won him over with his you-have-toearn-it pitch.
“Frank didn’t promise me anything,” he said. “He just told me I’d be a better person and a better man when I left.”
There was one hitch when Couisnard arrived in South Carolina.
He wasn’t eligible.
Martin said he missed the season because it had “something to do with his test scores.”
Martin doesn’t understand what the issue was, and he’s not happy about how it was handled.
“He did nothing wrong,”
Martin said. “To this day,
I’m extremely disappointed he couldn’t play. It was complete hogwash.”
Couisnard took the setback in stride, working on his body and studying his new team.
“I was able to watch and figure out how I could help,” he said.
Couisnard couldn’t have scripted a better opening season. Few players from Northwest Indiana ever end up in South Carolina, so he’s blazing a new path on a fast track.
He is way ahead of where he thought he’d be.
“All I wanted to do was to try to help the team in any way I could,” he said. “I didn’t know I’d be the second-leading scorer.”