Prep time for Saturday!
South Carolina is a surprising 12-1. Good win over Grand Canyon (yes they are a good team) but that's it for impressive wins. Really no other wins of note. Not that we are a lot better. Their one loss came at Clemson. Losing to your rival on the road when they are a likely tournament team is understandable. But being 9-0 in Quad 4 isn't going to help them much. Insert your own comment about our loss to Southern here.
A few things stand out about the Gamecocks.
Keys to winning
Everything screams pound the paint in this game. Tolu and Bell should have physical advantages over whomever is guarding them, and Cam and DJ should hopefully be able to do damage going strong to the rim against weaker defenders. We are a top 50 team in 2 point shooting %, and while our 3 pt shooting has improved, we are still 231 in the country. Go to the rim, score and/or get fouled, and make free throws. Making a few threes should be the cherry on top, not the game plan. Push the tempo faster than they want to play to hopefully get some clean looks at the rim.
Defensively, we are top 5 in the country in 3 pt defense. Need to see that continue on Saturday. Get under/through the screens and close out strong on the shooters. We aren't top 5 by accident. Stranger things have happened on the road in the SEC, but if we limit their threes, we should be in good shape. They average about 9 threes per game. Keep that to 6 or less and I like our chances.
Let's GOOOOOOOOOOO!
South Carolina is a surprising 12-1. Good win over Grand Canyon (yes they are a good team) but that's it for impressive wins. Really no other wins of note. Not that we are a lot better. Their one loss came at Clemson. Losing to your rival on the road when they are a likely tournament team is understandable. But being 9-0 in Quad 4 isn't going to help them much. Insert your own comment about our loss to Southern here.
A few things stand out about the Gamecocks.
- They play slow. 325 out of 362 in tempo and 332 in fast break points. They play way slower than we do.
- They shoot a lot of threes. Not in volume (because of the tempo), but in rate. About 43% of their shots are threes. Very similar to us in fact. We are both around 75th nationally in threes attempted per game. They are good but not great in making threes. We are bad but not terrible. Advantage, them.
- They don't turn it over. Top 20 in the country in taking care of the ball, but 299 in forcing turnovers. That puts them at 125 in TO margin. We are 193 if you were wondering.
- Because of the slow tempo, no transition, and the frequency of shooting threes, they don't get to the line a lot.
- They seem small to me but they throw a lot of bodies at you. They will play 10 dudes. Four guys 6-4 and under and another six who are in the 6-7 to 6-9 range. All play double digit minutes. Seven of the 10 are willing three point shooters. Rebounding for them is a team effort. No one gets more than 5.1 per game. Mack is a beefy guy at 270 but some of the other rotations players are skinny guys.
Keys to winning
Everything screams pound the paint in this game. Tolu and Bell should have physical advantages over whomever is guarding them, and Cam and DJ should hopefully be able to do damage going strong to the rim against weaker defenders. We are a top 50 team in 2 point shooting %, and while our 3 pt shooting has improved, we are still 231 in the country. Go to the rim, score and/or get fouled, and make free throws. Making a few threes should be the cherry on top, not the game plan. Push the tempo faster than they want to play to hopefully get some clean looks at the rim.
Defensively, we are top 5 in the country in 3 pt defense. Need to see that continue on Saturday. Get under/through the screens and close out strong on the shooters. We aren't top 5 by accident. Stranger things have happened on the road in the SEC, but if we limit their threes, we should be in good shape. They average about 9 threes per game. Keep that to 6 or less and I like our chances.
Let's GOOOOOOOOOOO!
