‘The perfect fit’: Versatile in-state point guard commits to Frank Martin’s Gamecocks
The South Carolina men’s basketball team doesn’t have a clear sense for what its 2021-22 backcourt might look like, with Seventh Woods set to exhaust eligibility and A.J. Lawson again a possible candidate to jump to the pros assuming he comes back for next season.
But that picture got a little bit clearer when Legacy Charter point guard Jacobi Wright committed to Frank Martin’s Gamecocks on Sunday.
The three-star guard is the second commit for USC’s 2021 class along with Miami guard Devin Carter, who committed in the spring and will go to prep school next year. At 6-foot-1 and 170 pounds, Wright is the No. 32 point guard in his class, according to Rivals.
“They just kind of fit what I was looking for,” said Wright, who is from Fort Mill. “A great coaching staff, great environment. I know some of the players there. Big arena and big conference. I get the exposure that I am looking for. It’s just somewhere where I feel comfortable.”
Last season, he led Legacy Charter in Greenville to a 22-9 record. He averaged 17.4 points, 3.7 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.7 steals per game. He shot 44 percent from the field and 32 percent from the field.
Wright’s other offers include St. John’s, DePaul, Elon, Tennessee State, Tulsa, UNC-Wilmington and Rhode Island.. Martin came in with USC’s offer in April.
Wright has visited USC for practices and games and has gotten to see up close how Martin runs his team. He knows Martin is a good bit different from most coaches, and he’s looking forward to learning under his style of coaching.
“I know he coaches his players hard,” Wright said. “I know he’s going to stay on his players but I feel like that’s a great asset to have when you are trying to get better as a player because you don’t want somebody to be easy on you and let you make mistakes and be OK with it. I feel like he just motivates his player to become as close to perfect as possible and make them the best players that they can be. I really like the way he coaches. He just prepares you for life as well.”
Wright said Martin showed another side of himself when he let him and his staff know that he was going to be a Gamecock.
“It was a lot of excitement,” Wright said. “They were just excited as I was to tell them. It just made me feel good because it made me feel like they really wanted me. He says I’m the perfect fit for what he’s built in the program and what the team needs when I come in.
“They say I have a great feel for the game. They said I’m a good leader of my team and a real solid point guard who can do a little bit of everything. They said I could fit well in running the team and leading them to where we need to go.”
The addition means South Carolina will have to shed one non-senior scholarship player in the 2021 offseason. Every big and wing on the team is a junior or younger, and young guards such as Trae Hannibal and Jermaine Couisnard will be juniors when Wright arrives.
The team is still waiting on word of whether or not Lawson will return for the upcoming season, as he is still in the NBA Draft pool with the option to come back.
This story was originally published June 21, 2020 at 2:01 PM.
