Jacobi Wright reflects on his season, gives credit to the team's chemistry
Junior guard Jacobi Wright saw a lot of turnaround from last season’s basketball roster to this year’s. He stuck it out through a losing season with a brand new head coach and later became part of a memorable South Carolina team.
Something about this group was different from others. The Gamecocks won 26 games and made it to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017.
Wright called the combination of players a “work of magic.”
“This team really just had, more, a feel of togetherness, chemistry. We went to the Bahamas before the season and got some games in down there,” Wright said during the Garnet Trust Hour on 107.5 The Game. “(We) just spent time with each other. I think that made a little difference in chemistry.”
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Before the season, the team had a lot of confidence in themselves, despite not many others believing in them. But the puzzle really started coming together after some of their big conference wins in SEC play.
“Once we beat Kentucky, beat Tennessee, we were really like, ‘OK, we’re doing something now,’” Wright said.
And they did. The team made it to March Madness following the program’s drought, but didn’t make it past the first round.
Wright said after their early exit in the tournament, head coach Lamont Paris just wanted the team to know he was thankful for them.
“He wanted to remind us how much we did accomplish this year, how successful we were,” Wright said. “And that this team is a start of something special, like this team was the foundation for what’s to come in the future years.”
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It took Wright a few days to look back at the season fondly after the loss to Oregon. But it was hard not to reflect on the season that was. And now he’s looking forward.
“It was a lot of emotion behind the season. We work everyday to get to that point and play every game to get to that point, so for us to lose, it was really emotional,” Wright said. “It stuck on guys for a few days but after that it kind of kicked back in that we did something special regardless of how we lost.”
Wright will take this experience and apply it to the future as he’ll be back for his senior season.
But that doesn’t mean everyone else will be coming back. As for replacing players like BJ Mack, Ta’Lon Cooper and Stephen Clark, Wright said it would be a challenge.
“For this last team, we fit really well. So we’re going to try to, I feel like keeping that same model, same make of the team,” Wright said. “But to find that right now, it’s a lot of guys in the portal and stuff. I’m sure it’s tough on the coaches to try to find the right pieces but I got good faith in them that we’ll find the right pieces to bring in and help this team get back to where we were.”
