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Big men making sizable difference for USC
Improved play from inside players have spurred the team’s turnaround
CommentsLate last week, Mike Holmes sat in the USC men’s basketball practice facility and flashed a wide grin. The subject was the Gamecocks’ big men, how much better they were doing — and how it had made Holmes, the team’s highest-profile recruit a year ago, almost a forgotten man.
“Everything’s going good right now,” Holmes said. “When my time comes, I know I’ll do something.”
A couple of days later there was Holmes, underneath the basket at Alabama’s Coleman Coliseum, tipping in the game-winning, buzzer-beating basket for South Carolina.
It was appropriate, and not because it was another signature moment for a team that has turned things around this season by excelling at the end of games. The improvement of South Carolina’s big men, a weakness last season, has been a little-noticed but critical reason for this team’s surge.
“I think what happened to their team is their frontcourt guys have really grown and developed,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said.
Donovan would know. When his Gators visited Columbia on Jan. 21, South Carolina inserted sophomore Sam Muldrow into the starting lineup, revamping its front line.
Since then, South Carolina has won six of seven games.
“The main reason we’re playing (well) is we got Sam back,” Holmes said.
In addition to giving USC a true center in the 6-foot-9 Muldrow, it allowed the burly, 6-7 Holmes to shift to power forward and the athletic, 6-7 Dominique Archie to play more wing.
Muldrow’s strong play has been a surprise. While he started 10 games last year, his inexperience showed. This season he looks like a different player, exhibiting a presence in the post and a lack of fear.
Archie said Muldrow had too many “distractions” last year and that there was nothing wrong with him, basketball-wise. This year, Muldrow appears to have more drive, according to his teammate.
“The coaching staff has a lot to do with that,” Archie said. “They pushed him really hard when he wasn’t playing, and I think he took it personally. And he wanted to get out and show people he could do it. Last year, he showed spurts of it but wasn’t consistent.”
Holmes’ play has been just as solid — but perhaps more unnoticed — as that of Muldrow. Holmes ranks seventh in the SEC with 7.8 rebounds per game, and he is more comfortable at the power forward spot.
“I’ve got more freedom,” Holmes said. “I don’t always have to (defend) the biggest person on the (other) team.”
Then there is Austin Steed, a wiry, 6-7 player who was used sparingly last season, and when he was, he tended to play in the backcourt. New coach Darrin Horn has played Steed on the inside, and the sophomore has been outstanding, notching four rebounds per game despite averaging 15.2 minutes.
Muldrow, Holmes and Steed are all sophomores, as Horn pointed out.
“You’re going to see a greater learning curve for them and maybe a greater improvement,” Horn said.
And that is what has happened. Guards Devan Downey and Zam Fredrick are the team’s leading scorers, but the Gamecocks’ rebounding numbers are much better and inside baskets are coming with more frequency.
Like at Alabama.
“Last year we weren’t that much involved in the game,” Holmes said. “But now we actually are involved, which makes it better for the team, because we’re playing as five players now, instead of everybody saying Devan and Buck (Fredrick) are the only two on the team.”
Reach Emerson at (803) 771-8676.
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