Five things we learned from South Carolina's loss to Kentucky

Despite a few minutes of quality basketball, South Carolina fell to Kentucky in Lexington, 80-57. The loss moved the Gamecocks to 0-10 in conference matchups this season. They are the only team in the SEC without a conference win to their name.

Here are five things we learned from watching the way South Carolina performed on Saturday.

Frontcourt depth was an issue earlier this season… and it still is

With 5:42 left in the first half, the score was 19-16 in favor of the Wildcats. That’s when Collin Murray-Boyles was sent to the line after picking up his second foul. From there, Kentucky outscored South Carolina 14-3 to take a double-digit lead into the break. The Gamecocks would eventually get the margin back to single digits, but that was solely momentarily.

Jordan Butler and Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk both got several opportunities against the Wildcats. That was typically when either Murray-Boyles or Pringle needed to sit. But the team struggled immensely when the backup duo was in.

Butler saw the court for nine minutes but didn’t collect an offensive stat, missed two free throws, and finished with a plus/minus of -13. Bosmans-Verdonk picked up two fouls in six minutes and finished with a -6 plus/minus. Of the team’s 23 contests this season, the duo has only managed four games in which both have scored.

South Carolina’s net rating is -5.0 when Bosmans-Verdonk is on the court, versus a +1.1 net rating when he sits. For Butler, the team’s net rating is -2.6 with him on the court and +0.7 off the court. Without Collin Murray-Boyles, the team’s offense and defense suffer. In terms of future depth, Nick Pringle still likely has one year of eligibility left due to the NCAA’s recent ruling on JUCO athletes. But Bosmans-Verdonk is out of eligibility and Murray-Boyles is most likely going to find himself on an NBA roster next season. Getting depth in the frontcourt will have to be a priority for the Gamecocks in the offseason.

Free throws might not actually be free

If there’s one thing that’s consistent about this Gamecocks team, they can get to the free throw line. It’s only once they get there that the inconsistency starts. South Carolina was able to attempt 23 free throws on Saturday. That’s exactly in line with their season average of 23.0 FTA/game, and that mark is 29th nationally.

But the Gamecocks made just 15 of those free throws for a 65.2 FT% on Saturday. That’s about in line with their season average of 69.4% from the line. Only two other SEC schools under 70.0% are Texas A&M and Mississippi State. They’re a combined 35-11 this season, so it’s not like being poor free throw shooters is something that dooms a team to last in the SEC. It just doesn’t help.

Texas A&M is first in the nation in both offensive rebounding and second-chance points. South Carolina is not. Mississippi State is top ten in the country in both steals per game and personal foul efficiency. South Carolina is not. Bad free throw shooting is something that can be overcome through excellence in other areas. South Carolina is lacking that excellence.

Time to pick up the pace?

South Carolina scored 14 points on the fast break yesterday. That’s 24.6% of their offensive output. For reference, the Gamecocks’ season average is 10.8%. Fast breaks are inherently efficient. Maybe a fast tempo could be, too. Of course, Lamont Paris does prefer a slower-tempo offense. That’s his philosophy, and he tends not to stray too far from it throughout a season. But it’s worth taking a look at if South Carolina has played better when the offense speeds up.

When the Gamecocks play above their average pace of 65.3 possessions per game, they’re 4-8. When they have less than their average, the Gamecocks are 6-5. The two games in which South Carolina had the highest percentage of their offensive chances in transition weren’t the best performances, to put it lightly. The Gamecocks had 19.4% of their offensive possessions come in transition against Xavier, a 75-66 loss. 18.7% of the Gamecocks’ offensive possessions against North Florida were in transition. The Gamecocks, of course, fell in that matchup by three points in the season opener.

But the only two games in which South Carolina had less than 5.0% of offensive possessions come in transition weren’t great either, a 35-point loss to Mississippi State and a 16-point loss to an Indiana team that has decided to part ways with Mike Woodson after the season. All in all, as inefficient as the offense is most of the time on the court, playing at a pace that varies heavily from Lamont Paris’s offensive philosophy doesn’t typically end well.

[Join GamecockCentral: $1 for 7 days]

Perimeter shooting is in the midst of a serious drought

Entering the calendar year, South Carolina was shooting 35.2% from deep. In 2025, that mark is down to 28.3%. Part of that has to do with playing tougher defenses. Part of that also has to do with the absence of Myles Stute. But yesterday against Kentucky was just another example of the Gamecocks failing to put the ball in the basket from beyond the arc. And in a league as deep as the SEC, it’s impossible to win without some semblance of quality three-point shooting.

South Carolina made just one three in the first half. It was from Collin Murray-Boyles, his sixth career make from deep. The team was 1-of-11 from deep at the break and finished 4-of-22 (18.2%). In their last five games, the Gamecocks are shooting 28.4% from the perimeter. In that span, Jacobi Wright is shooting 17.6% from deep, Arden Conyers is at 20.0%, Murray-Boyles at 28.6%, Zachary Davis at 31.0%, and Jamarii Thomas at 33.3%. Only Morris Ugusuk has been an above-average shooter in the last handful of games for South Carolina. Even he struggled against Kentucky, shooting 0-for-3 from deep.

It can only go up from here

The ten-game losing streak is the longest for the program since the first year the Gamecocks joined the SEC. The 1991-92 Gamecocks lost 11 games in a row under Steve Newton. Eddie Fogler’s 1999-00 squad’s nine-game losing streak was bested by South Carolina’s latest loss.

When will the streak end? Per ESPN, the Gamecocks have a <50.0% chance to win in all of their remaining eight games, effectively making them underdogs until October of this year. However, the SEC tournament provides an extra chance. Last year, Missouri entered the tournament winless. They then led 11 seed Georgia by seven points with under four minutes to go.

The Tigers did, of course, end up losing that game, so fortune may not be shining its light on the Gamecocks. But the new 16-team SEC basketball tournament has a bit of a change to the formatting. In the first round, the 16 seed would face off against the 9 seed in the first game of the tournament. Currently, that means South Carolina would face Mississippi State. The Bulldogs are currently locked in a convoluted tie-breaker situation with both Kentucky and Vanderbilt, but they would at present time be slated to play in the first round as the 9 seed. All three teams have previously defeated South Carolina this year.

Hypothetically, a single win over LSU would give the Gamecocks the 15 seed granted the Tigers remain winless in SEC games the rest of the way. All other SEC teams have collected three conference wins so far, so it remains unlikely that South Carolina could receive a seed other than 16 or 15 in the tournament. The 15 seed is slated to play against the 10 seed in the first round, which, currently, would be Vanderbilt.

With all of that looking ahead to the future, it’s important to take the season one game at a time. South Carolina may defeat Ole Miss in Columbia on Wednesday. Statistically, it cannot get worse. There is nothing below a .000 winning percentage. It can only go up.

Discuss South Carolina basketball on The Insiders Forum!