Frank Booker had a career year at USC. He hopes grad transfers follow his path
It didn’t take long into Frank Booker’s South Carolina career for the graduate transfer to appreciate those Gamecocks who came before him.
“How did Sindarius do this for four years?” Booker thought to himself in October.
Frank Martin’s program isn’t for everyone, but it was the route Booker chose after leaving Florida Atlantic last spring. The Gamecocks coach holds his players accountable. He’s fiery, intense and demanding, particularly when it comes to teaching defense.
Booker came to USC after Sindarius Thonrwell, Duane Notice and Justin McKie left. That trio of seniors embraced Martin’s style for nearly half a decade, and it paid off in the 2017 Final Four run.
Booker is in San Antonio this weekend, site of the 2018 Final Four. He’s representing the SEC in a national 3-on-3 tournament with $100,000 on the line. He’s coming off the best season of his basketball life and has professional aspirations.
Five months after some early questions, Booker wishes his USC career was only beginning.
“If I had the opportunity,” Booker said by phone Thursday, “I would have went to South Carolina my first year and stayed.”
Carolina announced Wednesday that both Khadim Gueye and Ibrahim Famouke Doumbia are transferring, leaving the Gamecocks three open scholarships to round out the 2018 recruiting period.
New Jersey forward Alanzo Frink and Nevada guard T.J. Moss are among the high schoolers USC is pursuing, but Martin and staff will test the graduate transfer market as well. Former USC Upstate guard Mike Cunningham is already on their radar.
Cunningham averaged 13.7 points and 3 assists for the Spartans in 2017-18. Booker, after never averaging more than 6 points per game at Florida Atlantic (2016-17) nor Oklahoma (2013-15), went for more than 12 a night at South Carolina. His 85 made 3-pointers are the third-most by a Gamecock in a single season.
He’s a 6-foot-3, 208-pound USC recruiting tool.
“I would say that would be their best decision ever for their final year,” Booker said of his pitch to grad transfers considering the Gamecocks. “Coach Frank, I have to say, is one of the most intense coaches. He holds you accountable for what you can do. I couldn’t ask for a better coach.”
Booker set career highs in points, rebounds, assists, steals, field goal percentage and 3-point field goal percentage while in Columbia.
“All this year did was help me not only confidence-wise, but statistically-wise, too,” Booker said. “Everything, if you look across the board, I got better. I feel like now my name is a little more out there, and that always helps.”
Booker, who is working toward a master’s degree in journalism, has potential professional playing opportunities in Greece and Italy. The NBA, though, remains his No. 1 goal.
“I feel like every team needs a shooter and I feel like I can shoot the ball pretty well,” Booker said. “I can shoot from range. All I need is an opportunity and once I get an opportunity I feel like I’ll make the best of it.”
Wes Myers, who signed in August, eventually joined Booker as Carolina’s only two seniors on this season’s team. The graduate transfer from Maine started 12 games and averaged 7.8 points as one of USC’s two point guard options.
After that duo combined for 48 points in a Senior Night win against LSU on Feb. 28, Martin said, “Those two guys, I wish I could coach them a little longer.”
South Carolina (17-16) eventually lost in the second round of the SEC tournament and failed to make the NIT, ending Booker’s short — but noteworthy — stay in garnet and black.
“I was hurt,” Booker said, “but at the same time, I was OK because I gave it all I had my last year. I felt like me and coach Frank, we jelled more and more as the year went on.
“I went and talked to him the next day. We just talked for about an hour, just talking about everything.”
About recruiting the next grad transfer to South Carolina?
“He hasn’t asked me to do that,” Booker said, “because he knows who I am and I’m going to do that anyway. Whatever coach Frank needs of me, it’s a done deal.
“If he asks me to jump to the moon, I’m jumping because of how loyal he is as a coach. And I’ve only been around him for this one year, but his loyalty is one in a million. I couldn’t ask more of a coach.”
This story was originally published March 30, 2018 at 8:55 AM with the headline "Frank Booker had a career year at USC. He hopes grad transfers follow his path."