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One huge area of weakness for the Gamecocks this season has been the play of its post players. And while the 2014 recruiting class got off to a strong start when Carolina received the signatures of Marcus Stroman and TeMarcus Blanton, both top 200 recruits, the staff continues to need another big body to help the team move forward in the SEC.
Today, Frank Martin and the Gamecocks reached out to Adonis Delarosa, a 6'11" center from Queens, NY:
South Carolina has offered 2014 Christ the King (NY) center Adonis Delarosa, according to @MikeLibs.
— Alex Kline (@TheRecruitScoop) January 29, 2014
Delarosa has 15 offers to his name, a list which includes power-program Pitt as well as mid-tier ACC (Wake Forest, Florida State, Miami) Big East (Seton Hall, St. John's), and Big 10 (Purdue) programs. 247Sports Composite ratings (which average all ratings of the player across recruiting websites) rank Delarosa as the 26th-best center in the nation, and the 292nd-best player overall.
That last rating puts him lower than where current big men Desmond Ringer and Demetrius Henry placed in their classes last season, and also behind Midaugas Kacinas's 2012 rating. Of course, Michael Carrera (and Laimonas Chatkevicius) did not have ratings coming into school, and those two may be Carolina's best big men at the present time, so ratings certainly aren't destiny.
The signing period for the spring begins April 16. The Gamecocks currently use all 13 of their scholarships, with only one senior - Brenton Williams. It's believed by many that Carlton Geathers will take a medical hardship and never step on the court for Carolina again. That still means that if Carolina takes Delarosa (or any other player in the 2014 spring signing period), one of the other 11 players currently on campus must depart or lose his scholarship. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out as the Gamecocks continue to seek post production.