USC men’s basketball team down multiple players for Saturday game at Clemson
COVID-19 issues have struck the South Carolina men’s basketball team yet again.
On his “Carolina Calls” radio show on Thursday, head coach Frank Martin said that the Gamecocks (8-2) will be down six players on the road against Clemson (7-4) on Saturday due to a combination of COVID-19 issues and injuries.
Martin did not say which specific players will be missing due to COVID-19. Without those six, USC will have 10 players available.
“As of right now, we’re gonna be down six bodies,” Martin said on the show. “And so we’ll have enough to play the game. And we’ll go up there, and we had a productive practice today, and we’ll battle and fight our tails off. I’ve got unbelievable confidence in the guys on our team. And we’ll figure it out. The six bodies are not all COVID-related.”
He said forward A.J. Wilson will be one of the missing players after suffering a knee injury Tuesday night against Allen. Martin said he expects Wilson to miss two to three weeks. It is believed junior guard Jermaine Couisnard (ankle) is one of the six. Couisnard has missed the last two games after rolling his ankle against Georgetown, but Martin hasn’t officially ruled him out for Clemson.
Last season, the Gamecocks battled positive COVID-19 tests, shutting down three separate times and canceling the bulk of their non-conference slate in a 6-15 season. Last season’s game against Clemson was canceled due to COVID-19 cases within the USC program.
Martin said before the season on Oct. 7 that all but two of the team’s players were vaccinated. Martin is vaccinated after contracting the virus twice last season.
Martin said the entire team will be tested again Friday.
“We’ve gotta hope that (Friday) now everybody tests again, that we don’t have more,” Martin said. “And that’s kind of the way it goes these days with this COVID stuff.”
The game is scheduled to tip at 8 p.m. Saturday and broadcast on ACC Network.
Martin and Clemson coach Brad Brownell are scheduled to address the media at 11 a.m. Friday in regularly scheduled press conferences.
This story was originally published December 16, 2021 at 7:30 PM.
