South Carolina 7-Footer could return from injury vs. Kentucky

The South Carolina frontcourt needs help defending Oscar Tshiebwe. They might get it from seven-foot center Josh Gray.

When Kentucky travels to Columbia Tuesday night, Gray will be one week removed from a wrist injury. He injured it while breaking his fall in a loss to Mississippi State. Frank Martin withheld him from playing over the weekend, but shared that Gray could play with a soft cast on his injured wrist against Kentucky.

“Can he play? Yes,” Martin said Monday morning. “I didn’t think it was fair to play him the other day. He tried, he practiced and he never appeared comfortable in practice, not because of pain. You know, basketball is not a sport that you play on the ground. You tend to jump and he’s a shot-blocker and a rebounder. If his legs get taken from him again, imagine having to put your arm down to break your fall and you got a cast on it. He just didn’t appear comfortable.

“He was in good spirits, he wanted to play and I made the decision not to throw him out there. I think he’ll be more at peace at practice today and I hope to maybe throw him out there a little bit. His ball-screen defense is the best on our team from the big spot. Kentucky ball screens a lot so we have to figure out a way to neutralize their ball screen coverage.”

Relied on for his defense, Gray has a couple of three-block performances and recorded 11 rebounds in a loss to Arkansas. A sophomore from Brooklyn that played his first season of college basketball at LSU, he’s averaging 3.2 points and four rebounds in just over 12 minutes per game. Even if Gray returns and plays a few minutes, Martin needs more scoring from his post players.

“Our big guys, they screen. For the most part they play pretty good post defense. We’re just getting nothing offensively from our bigs right now,” he said. “We’re getting nothing offensively from those spots.”

Sounds like a confident coach ahead of a matchup with a top five team.