South Carolina at Georgia
WHEN: Wednesday, 7 p.m.
WHERE: Stegeman Coliseum
RECORDS: Georgia 9-4, 1-0; South Carolina 10-3, 0-0
TV/RADIO: ESPNU (Kevin Fitzgerald, Sean Farnham); Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (Scott Howard, Chuck Dowdle, Tony Schiavone)
The return of South Carolina standout Sendarious Thornwell adds another bit of intrigue for Georgia’s SEC home opener Wednesday night (7 p.m., ESPNU) against South Carolina, but that suits Bulldog guard J.J. Frazier just fine.
Thornwell – South Carolina’s leading scorer and rebounder - sat out the past six games for the Gamecocks while serving a suspension for an unspecified violation of athletic policies.
For Frazier, his return is good news as he and Thornwell have been friends since the eighth grade, and played together in AAU.
“I’ve been talking through him through the suspension, telling him how I hope he plays, how I hope he comes,” Frazier said before practice on Tuesday. “You never want to see your friend not play basketball, especially a game he loves so I’m glad he’s back.”
No doubt the Gamecocks are, too.
With Thornwell out of the lineup, South Carolina (10-3, 0-0) went 3-3, including a 70-54 loss at Memphis last Thursday.
When he has played, Thornwell has averaged 18.7 points and 6.7 rebounds for the Gamecocks, who lost all three games against the Bulldogs (9-4, 1-0) last season.
“Sendarious Thornwell will be one of the candidates for Player of the Year in the Conference, so having him back certainly changes their team,” Georgia head coach Mark Fox said. “He is a terrific player.”
Frazier agrees, adding that the two have spoken a lot, and just not about Wednesday’s game.
“He’s a friend of mine. We don’t talk about the game; we just talk. That’s my boy,” Frazier said. “There’s always going to be love and affection.”
Frazier said he knows Thornwell will be ready.
“I guarantee he’s not rusty,” Frazier said. “We’re going to play our brand of basketball. We won’t change anything and they’re not going to change the way they play for anybody.”
Gamecock coach Frank Martin has a healthy respect for Frazier as well.
The Bulldog senior played a direct hand in all three of Georgia’s victories over South Carolina last year, including in the SEC Tournament when he stole the basketball with 2.1 seconds and was fouled before hitting two free throws that meant the difference in the game.
“J.J. Frazier handed us three losses last year,” Martin said during Monday’s SEC teleconference. “You can argue we were right there to win all three games and then in the last minute of the game, he said, ‘Nope, you guys are not winning.’ He’s an unbelievable competitor that has unbelievable courage. As a senior with his experience, he might be the most dynamic point guard in our conference.”
Frazier is coming off one of his better games, as well, scoring 27 points in Georgia’s victory at Auburn as he and teammate Yante Maten (31 points) combined for 58 of the Bulldogs’ 96 points.
Fox doesn’t believe the fact his team already has a conference game under its belt will give his Bulldogs any advantage.
“I think if we were facing a very inexperienced team that might be an issue, but their group is very experienced,” he said. “Thornwell, (Duane) Notice and (PJ) Dozier, those guys have played a lot of minutes in SEC battles, so I don’t think it will have much impact on their team at all.
They’ve played a tough schedule so I don’t think that will be an issue.”
NOTES: Maten needs 10 points to become the 48th Bulldog to score at least 1,000 points in his career. … The Bulldogs are currently No. 33 in the Jan. 3 edition of the NCAA RPI, while playing what is considered the 11th-toughest schedule in the country.
