Three games in and #SilvaSlam has barely been used. What’s up with USC’s top player?
The 8:44 mark of the first half of the third game. That’s how long it took for a popular South Carolina-related hashtag to return to your Twitter timelines this basketball season.
Chris Silva dribbled from the elbow to the block, spun on a defender and threw down, giving the Gamecocks a 21-8 lead over Norfolk State.
#SilvaSlam
USC went on to beat the Spartans by 17 on Tuesday. Coach Frank Martin spoke on a variety of topics in the post-game press conference, including the emergence of freshman guard A.J. Lawson (18 points), the team’s improved shooting touch (made a season-best 11 3s two games after making none) and the need to get his most accomplished player more involved.
Silva, a 2017-18 All-SEC performer and the league’s reigning defensive player of the year, has committed more fouls (eight) than he’s made field goals (seven) this season. A notorious rim-rocker, Silva has dunked one time as a senior.
“We got to get Chris going offensively,” Martin said.
Prior to Tuesday’s game, Silva was honored with a commemorative basketball to celebrate his 1,000th career point, something he accomplished at the end of last year. The 6-foot-9 forward sits 40th on the school’s all-time scoring list. A good final season and he could crack the top 10.
But entering this weekend’s Air Force Reserve Tip-Off Tournament in Connecticut, where the Gamecocks (2-1) get Providence (2-1) on Saturday and possibly No. 18 Michigan (3-0) on Sunday, Silva is fourth on the team at 9.3 points per game.
“I got to put him in a place where he can be aggressive offensively,” Martin said Thursday, “so he can just go. And then he’s got to trust in what he’s done for three years here that he can go.”
Martin said he saw flashes of that against Norfolk State. He pointed to three examples:
▪ A short-corner jumper that brought the USC lead to 13 with eight minutes left in the first half. “I want him to shoot that.”
▪ An assist to a cutting Maik Kotsar after finding a soft spot in the NSU zone. It came with 15:35 to go in the second half and pushed the USC advantage to 21. “Because he knew what was going to happen behind him, he immediately looked to put it on Kotsar for a reverse layup. Big-time play.”
▪ A jump hook over 6-8 forward Alex Long with 2:55 left in the second half. “He caught another one in the mid-post. He didn’t hold it and hesitate. He turned to his strong shoulder, knowing he had a smaller player on him and just jumped over the top and shot it.”
According to HoopMath.com, only 30 percent of Silva’s field goal attempts have come “at the rim” this season. That percentage was 44.1 last season, 45.9 in 2016-17 and 59.1 when Silva was a freshman in 2015-16.
According to KenPom.com, Silva this season is 91st nationally in fouls drawn per 40 minutes (7.9) and 100th in free throw rate. He ranked second and first in those categories last season.
“I got to help him and those young guards all understand how to play better together,” Martin said, referring to new Gamecocks such as Lawson and Tre Campell, a graduate transfer point guard from Georgetown. “The better the guards understand him and the better he understands the guards, the harder we’re going to become to be defended because we got guards that can do different things than we had last year, which should open up the floor for Chris.”
Some of Silva’s best performances in a Carolina uniform have come against the team’s toughest foes. He dropped 27 points in a win over Kentucky last season. During the ‘17 Final Four run, he dropped 17 on Duke, 12 on Baylor and 13 apiece on Florida and Gonzaga.
After Providence, a program that’s made five straight NCAA Tournaments, the Gamecocks could face Michigan, the 2018 national runners-up.
“I’m not into predicting,” Martin said. “Is he going to play good Saturday or Sunday because it’s Michigan? I got no idea, I really don’t. I don’t waste my energy on that. I just want him to have a peace of mind so he can be aggressive.”
Tip-ins
South Carolina and Providence will tip at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Mohegan Sun Arena. The game’s winner gets the Michigan-George Washington winner at 4 p.m. Sunday. The Saturday losers play each other at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. ... Martin said forward Alanzo Frink (knee) won’t play this weekend, but he’s confident the freshman will be back for USC-Wofford on Nov. 26, Carolina’s first game after the Thanksgiving break. ... Freshman guard Jermaine Couisnard remains sidelined with an academic issue with no timetable for a resolution. “It’s hold-and-wait,” Martin said. “It’s kind of like you’re in an airplane circling around the airport and waiting for that tower to say it’s OK to land. That’s kind of the situation that we’re in right now.”