Josh Gray dominates Kentucky's big men in win for South Carolina
Just a few weeks earlier, times were tough for Josh Gray. His minutes were little to none. There were even some games where he wouldn’t even step foot on the court.
But in a game where his team really needed him, Gray rose to the occasion. In a 79-62 win over No. 6 Kentucky on Tuesday, Gray had his best game of the year. He finished with nine points and six rebounds in 11 minutes of action.
“Unbelievable. I mean, we’ve been on Josh lately about just being Josh. Being aggressive and ducking in and just don’t try to dunk everything,” teammate Ta’Lon Cooper said. “I’m just proud of my team, proud of Josh. He played really well tonight, gave us good minutes.”
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One of the main reasons Gray saw more time in the game was due to Kentucky’s size in the paint. The Wildcats boasted three players over 7-feet tall. However, the biggest was 7-foot-2 freshman forward Zvonimir “Big Z” Ivisic.
Gray, a 7-foot forward, was the most logical choice to match up with the big men on the Wildcats. After all, he was the tallest player on South Carolina’s roster this year. He was also known to be a solid rebounder.
“Coach Paris has always told me to be big. I knew this game he was going to need it the most,” Gray said. “They have three seven-footers but they’re all freshmen. So I’ve got the experience factor. In situations where the ball was thrown to my side, I just dunked them in, got little to no resistance, and played big as I should.”
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Any time one of the three 7-footers checked into the game, Lamont Paris signaled for Gray to follow them in and play big. It was a move that ended up working out to the Gamecocks’ benefit.
All game long, Gray’s experience and physicality was too much for Kentucky to handle. There were multiple times where he looked like a grown man playing against children. At any rate, it showed in the final score.
On the other side, Ivisic was kept in check all game long. He finished with three points and two rebounds in 10 minutes for Kentucky.
“The point of emphasis preparing for them was to rebound. This league is filled with a bunch of seven-foot, athletic men like myself,” Gray said. So usually in practice, I just look my defender off and then go grab the rebound. I know I couldn’t do that today, and I needed to find my man and block him out and getting rebounds as a team. I feel like when we when we executed that game plan, everything really just followed suit.”
