He’s back: USC’s Keyshawn Bryant to make season debut. The plan for him vs. UMass
Keyshawn Bryant is back.
South Carolina’s sophomore wing will make his 2019-20 season debut Wednesday at UMass. USC head coach Frank Martin revealed the news following the Gamecocks’ morning shootaround at the Mullins Center.
Bryant had surgery last month to repair torn cartilage in his knee. The injury’s projected timeline stretched to as far as six weeks (or Carolina’s hosting of Houston on Dec. 8), but Bryant is returning sooner.
The 6-foot-6, 197-pounder took major steps this week to get to this point. Martin said Bryant practiced mainly in half-court sets Monday and “there was no adverse reaction from that,” allowing him to be a full participant Tuesday when the Gamecocks practiced in Columbia before leaving for Massachusetts.
“He was turned loose to go through the whole practice, which he did,” Martin said.
The timing is good for a USC team that enters Wednesday’s 7 p.m. tip-off with the Minutemen (5-3) coming off three losses in five games. Bryant, who averaged nine points and close to four rebounds as a freshman, figures to immediately boost Martin’s lineup options as the coach can now push Justin Minaya to the power forward position more regularly and insert Bryant at small forward. That’s the spot Bryant started 26 games at last season while Minaya was sidelined with injury.
“When we’ve gone small these first (eight) games, we lose a lot of rebounding, we lose a lot of size to defend dribble drives,” Martin said. “So now Jermaine (Couisnard) is guarding a 6-6 guy who’s trying to drive the ball or A.J. Lawson, who’s not physically built to take on a 210-pound guy that’s driving the ball. So it puts a lot of stress on our defense.
“Keyshawn being at small forward, now he can defend that guy. And Keyshawn brings an athletic ability to make certain plays that other guys on our team can’t make. There’s steals that he comes up with, blocked shots. There’s plays at the rim that he makes that no one else on our team makes.”
South Carolina (5-3) is playing its first true road game of the season. Bryant saved some of his best performances for the road last year, scoring 13 points at Michigan, 11 points (and six rebounds) at Georgia and 15 apiece at Missouri and Texas A&M.
But he also hasn’t appeared in a game since last March. Any limits on Bryant’s minutes Wednesday? Martin said no.
“I’m not big on that. Either they’re healthy or they’re not,” Martin said. “If he plays 12 minutes, how is that going to protect him from playing 28 minutes? It’s kind of on him. …. In our offense, we’re doing a couple things differently from when he first got hurt. But he’s a really intelligent guy so he picks things up pretty quick. He was sharp in practice (Tuesday). ... I’m going to throw him out there. For how long? Shape, endurance, success, all those things, I’ll feel it out as time goes on.”
NEXT
Who: South Carolina at UMass
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Amherst, Massachusetts
TV: CBS Sports Network
