South Carolina Suspends 5 Players for NIT Due to Conduct Issue

The South Carolina Gamecocks men’s basketball team will be shorthanded Tuesday when they take the court for their first NIT game against High Point.

Coach Frank Martin said, per GamecocksOnline.com, “TeMarcus Blanton, Eric Cobb, Jamall Gregory, Chris Silva and Marcus Stroman have been suspended indefinitely from the team due to a conduct issue.”

South Carolina hosts High Point on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET as a No. 1 seed in the NIT. Here is what the Gamecocks will be missing with five of their players suspended indefinitely:

Player	Minutes	Points	Assists	Rebounds	Field-Goal Percentage	Steals	Blocks
TeMarcus Blanton	4	1.5	0.3	0.6	37.5	0.3	0
Eric Cobb	6.1	1.1	0.1	1.9	56.5	0	0.1
Jamall Gregory	6.7	1.7	0.6	0.9	50	0.3	0.1
Chris Silva	13.3	5.4	0.2	4.5	48.2	0.4	0.9
Marcus Stroman	14.8	2.3	1.3	2	25.9	0.6	0.1

None of the numbers jump off the page, but the Gamecocks will be without important depth in a one-and-done tournament setting. Foul trouble or fatigue could become an issue, especially if they advance during these indefinite suspensions. 

South Carolina earned the No. 1 seed in the NIT by finishing 24-8 overall and 11-7 during the SEC regular season. It won its first 15 games of the campaign and appeared well on the way to an NCAA tournament berth but stumbled during a critical stretch late in the season from Feb. 13 to March 3 with four losses in six games, including a 27-point home loss to Kentucky.

The Gamecocks also lost to Georgia in a heartbreaker at the SEC tournament, 65-64, and were left on the outside looking in when the NCAA tournament field was announced on Selection Sunday. They already didn't have much momentum on their side after the late slide coming into the NIT before the suspensions were announced.

Even if South Carolina advances past High Point, it has the ACC’s Georgia Tech, the Pac-12’s Washington and Mountain West regular-season champion San Diego State in its bracket.

Despite missing the Big Dance, the Aztecs are No. 2 in Ken Pomeroy's pace-adjusted defensive-efficiency rankings and would give a full-strength South Carolina team difficulty scoring in a hypothetical matchup. Even as a No. 1 seed, the Gamecocks will be hard-pressed to advance to the NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden without some of their rotational players.