Stevenson Says He Joined South Carolina for Coach to Hold Him Accountable
Explaining his transfer to South Carolina, his third college basketball stop in four seasons, former University of Washington guard Erik Stevenson said he was seeking a coach who would hold everyone accountable, which seemed to indicate he didn't get that with the Huskies.
In an interview with GamecockCentral, the 6-foot-3 player from Lacey, Washington, said his big reason for choosing the SEC school over Butler and BYU was its hard-nosed coach, Frank Martin.
Martin guided the Gamecocks to the 2017 Final Four, where they lost to Gonzaga 77-73. This past season, however, his team finished 6-15 amid speculation he might not be retained.
“He shot me straight," Stevenson said. "He didn’t promise me anything. I didn’t look for anything to be promised. I don’t want promises. The only thing I want is a coach to promise me he’s going to coach me hard, he’s going to hold me accountable and the other 12 or 13 guys on the team are all going to be held to a standard of excellence and play ball.”
While Stevenson didn't mention Husky coach Mike Hopkins by name, those two had a contentious parting, with the player telling him he was unwilling to return for a second season.
They had a most awkward exchange near the end of the UW's disastrous 5-21 season, where Hopkins yanked his starting guard 84 seconds into a 64-61 loss to UCLA and held him by the head with both hands.
Later, Hopkins said he was just trying to motivate Stevenson, who had thrown a bad pass.
"I told him to say whatever he wanted to me; I get a little passionate," the Husky coach said, as shown in the accompanying video. "I just wanted him to know he was a great player."
Clearly, Stevenson's reputation as shooter took a big hit in his lone season at Washington after he connected on just 35.7 percent of his attempts overall, a meager 29.8 percent from 3-point range.
Rather than take any personal responsibility for this, Stevenson blamed his health for his shortcomings.
In fact, he was as guilty as anyone on a UW team that shot selfishly and miserably all season long.
“People can say what they want, but I’m a much better shooter than what my numbers have shown," he said. "I wasn’t healthy physically and wasn’t healthy mentally, either."
While he had high games of 29 points for Wichita State and 27 for the Huskies, Stevenson has never shot higher than 30 percent from 3-point range in any of his three seasons as a collegian.
Stevenson thinks he can fix that with the Gamecocks.
“They’re going to see a guy who has his confidence back, has his swagger back but they’re going to get a competitive dude who doesn’t take anything from anybody," he said. "That’s going to wear off on the team and we’re going to have the attitude that we’re going to punch somebody in the mouth.”
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