SEC: South Carolina Has To Start Feeding Demetrius Henry
The numbers speak for themselves: 14-18, 14-20.
Those were the records of South Carolina basketball’s team in the first two years of coach Frank Martin’s tenure. This year South Carolina is going to win more than 14 games because they get coached hard and because of it, they play competitively. Oh yeah, South Carolina’s going to win more games next year because of players such as Demetrius Henry who are rapidly getting better.
The second-year forward from Miami (had to throw that out there), is one of the biggest factors on this team, and is going to have an incredible year as soon as Martin and his teammates give him the basketball more.
Shooting guard Sindarius Thornwell is South Carolina’s best player and one of the best scorers in the SEC. Because he’s so good at scoring, Thornwell often forgets to get his teammates involved in games and it ultimately hurts him in the long run.
On the year Thornwell is averaging a career low in assists with 1.8 per game. On the contrast,Thornwell is putting up more than 13 shots a game in 27.3 minutes.
More from Hoops Habit
- The 5 most dominant NBA players who never won a championship
- 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
- Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
- Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
- Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
Even though Thornwell is one of the best players in the conference, the key to South Carolina’s success is going to come from easy scores in the paint. South Carolina has to get away with living and dying by Thornwell’s jump shooting and needs to find other options of scoring on the interior, particularly from Henry.
Henry has already gotten more strong, and more athletic to fight against the rigors of the SEC. For Henry, it all started in the weight room and after that nothing was the same.
Henry didn’t realize how difficult the transition was from high school and prep school to playing against the behemoths such as Jordan Mickey, Bobby Portis and Dakari Johnson in the Southeastern Conference. After beginning his freshman year around 210 pounds, Henry is now closer to 230 pounds and is ready to have a huge impact for South Carolina.
Henry has shown that he’s made the adjustment from his freshman year to his sophomore year. In his freshman year Henry averaged four points and 3.4 rebounds. Also Henry had eight games with at least six rebounds or more.
This season in four games Henry already has had an eight-rebound performance against Baylor and also blocked a shot. The best game of the season for Henry came against North Florida where he scored 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Those nine shots he took against North Florida in the opening game of the season were the most he’s taken all year.
This season the sophomore is ready to blossom into a great player and needs more shots to do that. On the year he’s averaging 5.5 points per game.
South Carolina isn’t supposed to have success this year, but don’t tell them that. This year this team looks very hungry to change their unfortunate failure. The Gamecocks are 2-2 and look as if they are going to win more than 14 games this season.
Though everyone on the roster is determined to have a great season, it seems as if they are pressing instead of letting the game flow and come to them.
The reason Thornwell has to get Henry involved is because he’s the undisputed leader of the team. If he can get Henry to play at an elite level and help his breakout campaign it will bring South Carolina closer to success in the SEC.
In addition think about the other competition that South Carolina has to face this season. South Carolina still has to play against Kentucky, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Arkansas and LSU which all have awesome big men. Having Henry entering these games playing with confidence and playing up to his potential will help chances their chances of pulling off an upset because of Henry’s inspired play.
If he remains unengaged during the early part of the year its only going to stay the same for South Carolina and they will get slaughtered inside against larger opponents.
All of these factors play to help the case of Henry. Because the South Carolina basketball program is still a work in progress there isn’t much history or tradition behind it’s name. Some of the most famous players in their history include Alex English, Mike Dunleavy Sr. and Renaldo Balkman.
Soon enough Thornwell will join their ranks.
However if Thornwell can inspire Henry to join him, and create a name for himself, not only will Henry have a monster year, South Carolina will win more than 14 games and set themselves up for success next season.