SEC: Sindarius Thornwell To Break Out For South Carolina
The heart has one of the most complex jobs known to man. Everyday the heart beats about 100,000 times and sends 2,000 gallons of blood through the body. The heart also is no bigger than the fist and has the task of keeping blood flow through the 60,000 miles of blood vessels that feed organs and tissues in your body.
They say home is where your heart is.
South Carolina’s shooting guard Sindarius Thornwell understood that concept well. Now entering into his sophomore season in college basketball, Thornwell is ready to breakout and become a hometown South Carolina legend.
Picture this, what if you had the opportunity to play major college basketball in your home state. Not only would your parents be in attendance wearing your jersey and holding up signs, your friends, classmates, and community would watch you play and be proud because you chose to stay in their backyard.
For Thornwell, that was the major factor in deciding if he should go to North Carolina State or South Carolina.
After a recruiting battle between N.C. State and South Carolina, Thornwell chose his heart and decided to stay in South Carolina.
His decision has so far paid off because in his freshman season at South Carolina, he dominated. Due to his incredible scoring instincts, as a freshman Thornwell scored 13.4 points a game and was the Gamecocks second-leading scorer.
When it came to playing against the competition within the SEC, Thornwell increased his scoring average to 15.6 points a game.
Thornwell has the skill to create shots off of the dribble. Because of that unique skill set, he often goes to the free thrown line a lot.
At 6’5″ and 215 pounds, he has the build to get inside of the lane often. During last season, Thornwell made it to the free throw line more than five times a game.
In the season he had 14 games where he shot six or more free throws.
Thornwell is not just a one-dimensional player, either. Though scoring is his special knack in basketball, he does everything on the court that impacts victories.
An example of this is when he played 17th-ranked Kentucky. Thornwell shot 4-of-16 from the field and had 14 points.
In spite of his bad shooting night, he finished the game with three rebounds, four assists (team high), one block, and one steal.
He also nailed two free throws late that helped seal the 72-67 victory over the Wildcats.
Thornwell knows how to make plays even when he is not scoring well. The numbers do not lie either, for the season he finished second in scoring, second in assists, third in rebounding, first in steals and fourth in blocks per game for South Carolina.
Again, this was only his freshman year.
Even though Thornwell was awesome for most of the year, it did not translate into wins.
One of the downfalls about home cooking is you need to learn how to eat when you are away from home. South Carolina was awful on the road, they finished with an 1-11 record.
Thankfully South Carolina returns a lot of their players and most of them are young. Their youth is partially one of the reasons why they were so terrible away from home.
Head coach Frank Martin has another year to help turn this program around, and they should improve on their 14-20 record. In order to do that though, the Gamecocks will need more wins within conference play.
They were 5-13 within the SEC.
Next year with the maturation of Thornwell’s game, he’ll take the leaps in his game to start taking easier shots (he shot 38 percent from the field), and learn how to distribute more when his shot is not there.
Coach Martin will bring more offensive continuity and will place Thornwell with easier opportunities to get buckets.
If South Carolina won more games next year, we might be hearing a lot of noise from Thornwell earning a first team All SEC roster spot. It all depends on the number of games South Carolina can win.
Becoming a legend in your home state and winning for them is admirable.
As I once heard Dorothy say as she clicked her red heels, “there’s no place like home.”
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