Erik Stevenson Tells Gamecock Faithful That Washington Wasn't a Good Fit
Erik Stevenson plays college basketball with a decided edge, has a nice-looking jump shot and speaks with a surprisingly deep voice, all positive attributes.
After a disastrous year with the University of Washington and a 5-21 team, he's in South Carolina now, telling anyone who asks that the Husky basketball team simply wasn't a good fit for him.
The 6-foot-3 guard from Lacey, Washington, and originally a Wichita State player, didn't like Mike Hopkins' zone defense nor did he care much for a UW offense that did little more than encourage individuals to launch the ball as soon as each guy got it — which seemed to be his speciality.
Maybe he didn't like Hopkins either, a coach who often times uses a 1960s Timothy Leary feel-good approach. According to insiders, they didn't part well when Stevenson was the first player out the door, with the player suggesting that promises weren't kept by the coach.
“Having that experience of transferring to Washington the first time pretty much gave me a sense of what I wanted to look for my second time in the portal and what I wanted to get back to playing," Stevenson told The Big Spur. "In my opinion, that’s the right style of basketball, playing as a team offensively and being connected defensively, and taking good shots as many possessions as you can."
Except that Stevenson left out an important piece to this Husky puzzle. Outside of a game at California and an occasional offensive flurry thereafter, he played badly. He pressed when things began slowly for him and he never got untracked the rest of the way.
He can blame everyone and everything for his troubles, but there's no overlooking the fact that he was part of the miserable 5-21 problem. He wasn't a good team player.
Stevenson was supposed to be a foundational Husky addition, but he never assumed a leadership role after he was given carte blanche to shoot, and he was the first one out the door when it ended.
While South Carolina hails him as one of its exciting new additions for the coming season and he's rightfully enthused to be a Gamecock, it's hard to ignore the fact that the local guy was a big disappointment.
“Being a two-time transfer, people look at it negatively and I look at it negatively sometimes, but things happen for a reason,” Stevenson told his South Carolina audience.
Here's a Q & A Stevenson participated in after arriving in his new surroundings on the other side of the country.
OK, the pandemic season was one that no one across the college basketball landscape will want to remember, outside of those Gonzaga-beating, national-champion Baylor Bears.
Here's hoping South Carolina works out for Stevenson, that he leads them in scoring and that he moves on to a nice career overseas somewhere. Where they don't play a zone defense and they don't care what happened to him during that ugly 2020-21 season at Washington.
Maybe he needs a coach like the Gamecocks' Frank Martin, who's more like his tough-guy personality. Maybe Stevenson will be as good in Columbia, South Carolina, as he was bad in Seattle.
Yet he should be reminded that truly great players learn to adapt to their situations, especially in the pros, and make a difference wherever they go. This is trait that seems to have been lost forever on the college basketball landscape, with the transfer portal providing an easy out and a place to spread excuses.
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