Oct. 15, 2015

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COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina head men’s basketball coach Frank Martin, along with senior forward Laimonas Chatkevicius and junior guards Duane Notice and Sindarius Thornwell met with members of the media today, as the squad continues its second week of preseason practice. Media were then able to watch the opening segments of practice later in the afternoon.

The Gamecocks continue preseason practice through the month of October before hosting Allen in an exhibition contest on Nov. 8, at 4 p.m. ET.

Head Coach Frank Martin:
Opening statement
A couple of laundry items that you guys have asked me for in the last month. Brian Steele tried to go, but that knee is not responding. We are going to make Brian a student assistant coach. My heart goes out to him. For someone that’s worked so hard, to earn a scholarship and to be such a contributing member of the building blocks of our program, to not be able to play is frustrating. It’s our job to continue to help him. Also, Justin McKie at the very end of Monday’s practice, in the last drill or second to last drill, jumped up to dunk and pulled a hamstring. Outside of that, we are healthy and have been pretty good in practice.

On managing expectations
We create our expectations. I might be one of the few coaches in the country who will actually read stuff and will listen to what’s said on the radio. Not all the time, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t tune in some, and I’m not real good at lying. I don’t pay attention to chat rooms. That’s irrelevant to me. Regardless of what any expert’s opinion is, we create our expectations. We don’t want to play for seventh place because we were voted eight in one poll. That’s what we spoke about that day and that’s what we speak about every day. Regardless of what anyone else thinks or what anyone has an opinion to what it should be. What matters is where we’re at. I can tell you I’m as comfortable with our basketball team as I’ve been at any second since I’ve been here and it’s because of the growth of those upperclassmen.

On PJ Dozier playing point guard
He plays the game like a point guard. That’s the way he views it and sees it. That’s where he has been at 90 percent of the time. Defensively and offensively he’s matched up with [Marcus] Stroman, Sindarius Thornwell and Duane Notice every play of every practice. He’s been good. He’s turned it over a little bit too much, but on the contrary I’m not worried about mistakes right now. I’m worried about improvement. He’s retaining stuff at an unbelievable rate. That’s a credit to his background and a credit to the preparation he’s had before he got to college by his teachers, parents and coaches. He’s fun to be around. He’s an engaging personality. He’s all about unity and bringing people together. It’s fun to be around that.

On how the defense has looked in practice
The way we structure our practice right now, we really don’t talk about defense until next Monday. That’s when we start implementing all of our defensive concepts. Right now, we do play defense, but we just turn them loose. I want to see their ability to communicate and be willing to fight and compete defensively while we’re running our offensive concepts. They’ve been pretty good. The freshmen, they’ve been good. I’m extremely happy with that group. The reason they’ve been pretty good is because of our upperclassmen. Our upperclassmen have been tremendous, and not just the last six days. The upperclassmen have been real good with enthusiasm and helping. The upperclassmen are getting ready to learn the biggest fact of life, and that’s the more you help, the more fun it is. They’re learning that helping guys is a fun experience.

On how TeMarcus Blanton is doing after his injury
He’s ahead of schedule. Technically he was not supposed to start jogging until right now, this time period. He’s been cleared for full go, since early August. He’s ahead of schedule. We’ve had six practices and he’s probably had two of them where he’s just real stiff and when you take into consideration the severity of his injury, I’m thankful that he’s able to be out there playing, let alone doing well. He’s been good. You hear us say in sports `he’s got a motor,’ well he has a motor. He’s going through freshman stuff right now because he gets lost. He cares so much that he gets frustrated, but he’s been alright. It’s great to see him out there competing. Now you’ve got him and Sindarius matched up and when you’ve got two guys getting after one another, now we’re preparing ourselves for SEC competition. That’s where we are starting to get to as a program. We’ve got that competition within our basketball team that’s going to prepare us for the kind of competition we are going to play against. He’s doing good. His spirits are good. There’s some discomfort there. If he goes three days in a row, he’s going to be stiff. We’re learning how to manage him as he continues to understand his body moving forward.