South Carolina’s plan to contain Kentucky’s Tshiebwe has a Wildcats connection
South Carolina’s hope to contain Oscar Tshiebwe on Tuesday night will have a Kentucky connection. One of the Gamecocks’ big men, Wildens Leveque, is a cousin of ex-Cat Nerlens Noel.
Leveque, a junior listed at 6-foot-10 and 255 pounds, leads South Carolina in rebounding (5.2 per game) and blocks (19).
“He’s not playing great,” South Carolina Coach Frank Martin said Monday. “But it’s not for lack of effort and lack of desire.”
Echoing other coaches opposing Kentucky, Martin said he was not expecting his big man to contain Tshiebwe mano a mano.
“I don’t need him to go tit for tat with Oscar on the glass,” Martin said of Leveque. “I just need him to put his body on Oscar and make sure he doesn’t get the rebound.
“But we need him to play better.”
South Carolina goes into the game with an overall record of 13-9. That includes a 4-6 record in Southeastern Conference play. The Gamecocks are 9-3 in home games.
Leveque is averaging 7.3 points. Guard Jermaine Cousinard is averaging 9.6 points. Martin suggested those two players are key to his team’s ability to win a game.
“When Cousinard and Leveque play solid offensively, we’ve got a really good chance to win,” the South Carolina coach said.
‘Dropped their heads’
While Kentucky is coming off an encouraging victory at Alabama, South Carolina will try to bounce back from an 81-57 loss to Tennessee.
That game got worse for South Carolina as it evolved. Tennessee outscored the Gamecocks by 20 in the second half.
“Guys kind of dropped their heads,” Martin said after the game. “As soon as you drop your head against a top-20 team, they’re going to score. … They had the resolve to take control of the game. And we did not have the resolve to fight through that difficult moment in the game.”
The loss left Martin looking for answers.
“It’s embarrassing,” Martin said. “I don’t throw kids under the bus, but I don’t know what to do. Our guards are our leading rebounders every game. … That’s deflating. We get no scoring from (front-court players). No rebounding from them.”
Father-son
On Monday night, the ACC Network began airing a 10-part documentary on the ACC Tournament. One of the players to be featured is former Maryland guard John Lucas, who happens to be the father of UK assistant coach Jai Lucas.
The younger Lucas called his father his biggest basketball influence. But that did not prevent the son from directing some good-natured jabbing at his father.
“I always give him a hard time because he used to always preach to me about going left, making sure I used my weak hand and off hand,” Jai Lucas said. “I watched a clip of him dribbling down the right side with his left hand.”
The elder Lucas was a lefty.
“I always gave him a hard time about him not using his right hand,” Jai Lucas said with a smile.
The ACC Tournament documentary runs each Monday night through March 7.
Etc.
Karl Ravech, Jimmy Dykes and sideline reporter Marty Smith will call the game for ESPN.
This story was originally published February 7, 2022 at 1:56 PM.
