South Carolina Basketball: 3 takeaways from Gamecocks loss to Houston

Gamecocks needed a leader

If you took the time to listen to any of Frank Martin’s press conferences last season, you would know that Martin thinks very highly of redshirt sophomore guard, Jermaine Couisnard. In fact, during the 2019-20 season, it was clear that Martin viewed him as the Gamecocks leader, because of his willingness to hold guys accountable for their mistakes and get them to play at a higher level.

In my opinion, because South Carolina’s roster turnover wasn’t significant in 2020-21, it is reasonable to think that Martin thinks of Couisnard, as the Gamecocks leader once again this season. And while that is certainly something that is encouraging to hear, if you are a Gamecock fan, it does not excuse the fact that Couisnard did not display his leadership skills on Saturday, in a game that was certainly winnable.

When South Carolina was trailing Houston 59-52 with 8:37 remaining in the game, the Gamecocks had an opportunity to go on a run and make life tougher for the Cougars. However, Couisnard failed to step up and made sure that the Gamecocks got the most out of every offensive possession, and put together multiple stops defensively.

How was he supposed to go about making sure that these things happened? Well, as a guard, Couisnard was supposed to go and get the ball, whenever he saw that one of his teammates was struggling to operate, as opposed to watching them dribble from side to side, and get stuck repeatedly.

In addition to that, when Couisnard noticed that guys were out of position, or temporarily lost on the floor, he was supposed to direct them to the spots on the floor, where they should have been. It is one thing to be a leader during timeouts, and tell guys that they need to play better, but when it is time to go back out on the floor and compete, you have to be able to assert yourself, in a way that causes guys around you, to take their games to the next level.

On the defensive end, Couisnard was okay, but because he didn’t lead by example on that end of the floor, the Cougars had their way offensively in the second half. What do I mean by that? Well, I mean that Couisnard should have applied the same pressure, that the Cougars were applying on him, instead of sitting back, and playing the same average defense that the rest of his teammates were playing.

I understand that players don’t want to get blown by or exposed as they are tightly defending shifty/quick guards, but in a second-half where you can’t seem to make your opponent uncomfortable at all, you can’t be afraid to put yourself out there, so that you can potentially generate key turnovers for your team.

I don’t know about all of you, but as South Carolina began to crumble and malfunction in that second half, I did not see Couisnard exhibit any signs of leadership at all. I think that it’s safe to say that Couisnard’s lack of leadership during half #2, is a big reason why the Cougars were able to extend their lead, and build a nice cushion for themselves late in the contest.

You could look at Couisnard’s 10 points on 3-9 shooting (33%) and say that he had a halfway decent game, but you would also have to look at his five turnovers and come to the conclusion that he couldn’t lead the Gamecocks on Saturday, because he was just as rattled as the next South Carolina player.

The bottom line is, Couisnard will have more opportunities to show that he can be a strong leader for the Gamecocks this season, and if he wants South Carolina to perform well during the rest of non-conference play, and all of conference play, he will need to show that Frank Martin picked the right guy, to be the leader of the Gamecocks in 2020-21.