Mark Kingston has busy to-do list in first days as USC’s coach

New South Carolina baseball coach Mark Kingston will spend the next several days breaking down the Gamecocks returning players, scouting and talking with future Gamecocks.

Kingston was introduced as USC’s coach Friday and had already watched an entire South Carolina baseball game on YouTube, as well as some highlights of other games through different outlets, before he spoke with the media at Williams-Brice Stadium.

“We need to figure out what we have, what we need to do with our roster at this point,” Kingston said. “To me, it’s all about recruiting and maximizing what our roster is.”

There is a baseball tournament taking place in Atlanta this week that features some of the top travel teams in the country.

Several Gamecocks commits will be in attendance, and Kingston will be in attendance as well, making his first appearance at an event since being named USC’s coach.

Kingston already has been on the phone with several South Carolina commits, and many have taken to social media to reaffirm their commitment to the Gamecocks. Now several will get to see Kingston in person as well.

“There’s a big tournament going on in Atlanta that I will show up at very quickly,” Kingston said.

Kingston’s roster at USF was made up almost entirely of players from Florida, with one player from Massachusetts and one from New York.

But Kingston does not expect that to be the case at South Carolina. He plans to continue to recruit the areas that USC has had success landing recruits in the past.

The Gamecocks roster this past season featured 11 players from South Carolina, six from Georgia, four from Florida, two from Maryland, two from Tennessee, two from North Carolina, two from Virginia, one from Oklahoma, one from Kansas, one from Indiana, one from Illinois and one from California.

“We all know who the best travel teams are. We all know who to talk to to find the best players. … Now it’s a matter of knowing which teams you’re watching from your footprint. That’s what it’s all about, just knowing which teams are good at feeding this program and it’s teams from South Carolina, teams from North Carolina, Georgia now has started to be a good state for us.

“We will go into Florida. Carlos Cortes is a Florida kid. We’ll use all those states,” Kingston said. “At the end of the day, we just want to get the best players. The best players, generally, play on the best travel teams. We’re well aware of who those teams are.”

This story was originally published July 3, 2017 at 9:48 PM with the headline "Mark Kingston has busy to-do list in first days as USC’s coach."