NEW YORK — Justin McKie was sure he was injured. It was the summer of 2013, the morning after his first weightlifting session as a South Carolina freshman, and he’d never felt so sore. “There’s no way I’m supposed to feel like this,” he told Mark Rodger, the team’s athletic trainer.
Rodger assured McKie that his body was not broken. “Your muscle is just building,” he said.
Three years later, McKie is barrel-chested with sculpted arms—toned, tough and tenacious. The same goes for fellow senior guards Sindarius Thornwell and Duane Notice. Together, they form a perimeter group that’s as physically intimidating as any you’ll find in college basketball, the key to a defense that ranks second in the nation in adjusted efficiency.