South Carolina Basketball took a step back as a program after making their first-ever Final Four appearance. How does the 2018-19 roster look in comparison?
The 2017 Final Four appearance was huge for South Carolina Basketball. It put the program in the national limelight for the first time ever and seemingly presented another challenge to Kentucky in the SEC.
But the Gamecocks had to replace their entire starting perimeter, who combined to average around 45 ppg,14 rpg, and 8.0 apg. Head coach Frank Martin and staff opted to go to the transfer market for an easy fix – a move that backfired in the end.
The former mid-major stars struggled at the next level and couldn’t match up well versus the other SEC teams. South Carolina barely finished above .500 for the season 17-16 (7-11) and was never in the NCAA Tournament conversation.
The Gamecocks went through another roster turnover, which included losing a player that never suited up for the team. Brian Bowen was a former five-star recruit at Louisville who had to leave the team after the FBI Investigation made it so that the program didn’t want him to be around. South Carolina offered him a spot on the team time later, redshirting the rest of this past season. Ultimately though Bowen departed the program to the NBA after even more complications occurred.
The Gamecocks suffered a blow by losing him but Coach Frank Martin made a nice recovery late in the recruiting market, grabbing a pair of players likely to make an immediate impact. Will they and the returning veterans be enough to get South Carolina back to the Big Dance?