When South Carolina’s top basketball recruits go elsewhere, how do they perform?
Sindarius Thornwell won 2017 SEC Player of the Year en route to leading South Carolina to its first Final Four appearance in program history. He’s now in the NBA with the Los Angeles Clippers.
P.J. Dozier was the second-leading scorer for the ‘17 Gamecocks. He’s now with the Oklahoma City Thunder’s organization.
Both Thornwell and Dozier were big-hits last week in their return to their home state for the South Carolina Pro-Am.
One’s from Lancaster and the other’s from Spring Valley High School in Columbia.
Frank Martin hasn’t landed every major in-state recruit since his hire six years ago, but he’ll put the times shared by Thornwell, Dozier and Irmo’s Justin McKie at USC up against any of the top SC high school players who have recently left the state for college.
“Research the six years I’ve been here,” Martin told reporters in June, “and I’m willing to put the experience that P.J. Dozier, Justin McKie, Sindarius Thornwell have had as players that came here, their experience, their playing time and their success rate and how much better they got against anyone else. Is that fair for me to say?
“I’ve done it. I speak about it in recruiting in private. I’m not ready to speak about it publicly. I don’t think I ever will because that’s not fair. People got to make decisions that’s best for them. Not what’s best for me or what’s best for South Carolina.”
Sixteen South Carolina high school players have made the top 200 of 247Sports’ Composite rankings from 2013-18, not including McKie, who was the state’s Mr. Basketball in 2013. Here’s a look at which school they chose and how they’ve done.
2013
Player (hometown): Sindarius Thornwell (Lancaster)
Rank in 247 composite: 30
College: South Carolina
College notes: 2017 SEC Player of Year; School’s all-time leader in starts and minutes, third in scoring
Where is he now? NBA; Los Angeles Clippers
2014
Player (hometown): L.J. Peak (Gaffney)
Rank: 65
College: Georgetown
College notes: 2015 Big East All-Rookie Team; Averaged 12.1 points for his career
Where is he now? NBA G League; Boston Celtics organization
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Player (hometown): Marcus Stroman (Columbia)
Rank: 151
College: South Carolina
College notes: Transferred to Louisiana-Lafayette; Averaged 6.8 points per game last season
Where is he now? Rising senior at ULL
2015
Player (hometown): P.J. Dozier (Columbia)
Rank: 25
College: South Carolina
College notes: Second-leading scorer on 2017 Final Four team; Averaged 10.4 points for his career
Where is he now? NBA G League; Oklahoma City Thunder organization
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Player (hometown): Tevin Mack (Columbia)
Rank: 57
College: Texas
College notes: Transferred to Alabama; Averaged 8.1 points at Texas
Where is he now? Eligible for first season at Alabama in 2018-19
2016
Player (hometown): De’Riante Jenkins (started HS career in Santee, but moved to Orlando, Fla.)
Rank: 43
College: VCU
College notes: Finished last season second on team in scoring; Averaging 9.7 points in career
Where is he now? Rising junior at VCU
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Player (hometown): Seventh Woods (Columbia)
Rank: 48
College: North Carolina
College notes: Appeared in 40 games as freshman, but missed 17 last season due to injury; Averaging 1.4 points in career
Where is he now? Rising junior at UNC
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Player (hometown): Jordan Bruner (Columbia)
Rank: 193
College: Yale
College notes: Second in Ivy League with 55 blocks as a freshman; Missed last season with injury
Where is he now? Rising redshirt sophomore at Yale
2017
Player (hometown): Jalek Felton (Mullins)
Rank: 30
College: North Carolina
College notes: Averaged 2.9 points in 22 games last season before being suspended from the team and then withdrawing from the university
Where is he now? Has signed to play professionally in Slovenia
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Player (hometown): Devontae Shuler (Irmo)
Rank: 110
College: Ole Miss
College notes: Appeared in 32 games with nine starts last season; Averaged 6 points per game
Where is he now? Rising sophomore at Ole Miss
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Player (hometown): A.J. Oliver (Central)
Rank: 156
College: Clemson
College notes: Appeared in 19 games last season; Averaged 2.1 points
Where is he now? Rising sophomore at Clemson
2018
Player (hometown): Zion Williamson (Spartanburg)
Rank: 5
College: Duke
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Player (hometown): Aaron Nesmith (Charleston)
Rank: 63
College: Vanderbilt
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Player (hometown): D.J. Burns (Rock Hill)
Rank: 106
College: Tennessee
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Player (hometown): Robert Braswell (Blythewood)
Rank: 149
College: Syracuse
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Player (hometown): Jimmy Nichols (Conway)
Rank: 186
College: Providence
This story was originally published July 28, 2018 at 9:37 AM.