Stevenson's Next Stop is South Carolina After Leaving Huskies Behind
The well-traveled Erik Stevenson, looking for a place to land in which the rims are more forgiving than the ones he left at Washington and Wichita State, announced on social media on Sunday that he will play his next college basketball for South Carolina.
The 6-foot-3 guard from Lacey, Washington, joins the SEC team after spending a lone season with the Huskies and two others at Wichita State.
Stevenson curiously will cast his lot with a South Carolina team that has as much turmoil surrounding it as the UW team he leaves. The Gamecocks come off a disappointing 6-15 season and have lost four players to the transfer portal and two others to NBA early entry.
There was even speculation that South Carolina might not retain coach Frank Martin, but the school recently gave him an extension.
While Stevenson clearly is a hard-nose competitor with text-book skills, he proved to be a major disappointment for a UW team that nosedived to a 5-21 season and 11th-place finish in the Pac-12.
Stevenson appeared in every game for the Huskies, starting 23 of them and averaging 9.3 points per game. Yet he could never get going, never put the basket with any degree of consistency, and he certainly had his chances.
He took more 3-pointers than anyone else (124) on the UW team by a wide margin and hit just 29.8 percent of his attempts, second-worst only to Hameir Wright's 29 percent among those who drew significant minutes.
Near the end of the season, Stevenson described how difficult it was for him to deal with all of the losing. He looked greatly perplexed when yanked just 15 seconds into a late-season game and coach Mike Hopkins awkwardly grabbed him on the sideline, with the UW leader later explaining he was attempting to challenge him.
As a Wichita State freshman, Stevenson connected on 34.9 percent of his shots, 30.5 of his 3-pointers, as he started part-time and averaged 6.5 points per game.
As a Shockers sophomore, Stevenson hit 37.7 and 30.4 percent, starting two-thirds of the season while averaging 11.1 ppg.
He has two seasons of eligibility remaining because of the pandemic as he continues his lengthy search for a place that fits his game.
Stevenson is one of six players who have left the UW program since the season ended. He and fellow guard Nate Pryor, who resurfaced at New Mexico State, are the only ones with new teams so far.
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