Lamont Paris pleased with GG Jackson's energy heading into Alabama game

For South Carolina, all eyes entering Saturday centered around GG Jackson. 

The Gamecocks’ freshman was coming off a tumultuous 10-day stretch that included just 10 minutes over the course of two second halves against Ole Miss and Vanderbilt. 

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Heading into a road tilt at LSU, South Carolina needed growth from the five-star prospect and got it in the form of not just scoring but better overall body language. 

“It was great to see him. I’m evaluating less of a basketball sense and how many shots he makes and more about his energy and those kinds of things,” Lamont Paris said. “If those are good and his effort is high, the stat sheet tends to fill out how you want it too because he’s that kind of player.”

Jackson, who was reinserted back into the starting lineup, responded with 20 points on an albeit inefficient 5-for-17 shooting. He did hit four of his 10 three-pointers but, and maybe the most encouraging hit all six of his free throws and hauled in eight rebounds.

His 104 offensive rating was the fourth-highest in SEC play behind Missouri (135), Auburn (121) and Kentucky (150). 

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In the two games prior, Jackson had just seven points on 3-for-12 shooting (1-for-8 from three) with no free throws attempted. He had more turnovers (4) than rebounds (2). 

“He had a couple of games where his energy wasn’t where it needed to be for him,” Paris said. “It was great to see it in that game and have really, really good energy and activity. That turned into him having a good game.”

His performance–along with fantastic days from Jacobi Wright, Meechie Johnson and Hayden Brown–led to a nine-point win at LSU and the Gamecocks’ best offensive rating of the season: 126.2 points per 100 possessions. 

South Carolina shot 46.9 percent from three and the Gamecocks assisted on a whopping 20 of 25 makes. 

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“I think that might be the most exciting statistic as a team this year: 25 baskets and 20 assists. That’s a lot of excitement for us. We saw it build in practice,” Brown said. “But once again, we see fruit from this work. Oh, assisting on buckets works. It’s better for the team. Everybody kind of saw that. There’s a trend, for sure. But it helps when it works.”

Things ramp up for a South Carolina team (10-17, 3-11 SEC) playing its best basketball over the last month. Alabama, the SEC favorite and a national title contender, comes to town Wednesday night having just four blemishes total on its resume. 

Led by Brandon Miller–who is dealing with his own set of issues heading into the game–the Tide have won 11 SEC games by double figures and two by at least 40 points. 

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All eyes now will shift to the matchup between Jackson and Miller, two potential first-round picks in this year’s draft. But Paris said he’s going to try and downplay as much as possible that matchup. 

Regardless, the Gamecocks need more of the same from Jackson coming off his performance against LSU. 

“If this was tennis or golf and they were paired up in a foursome then it’s more like one guy versus another guy. We play a team sport. No matter how well either guy plays, if his team falls short then they lost the whole matchup,” he said.

“But everyone is talking about it. It’s the same thing from the Tenessee game here with Julian Phillips being a local guy…we tried to do it then and I’ll try and do it again but just downplay the importance of any particular one-on-one matchup versus what it means to improve.”

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Game details

Who: South Carolina (10-17, 3-11 SEC) vs. Alabama (23-4, 13-1 SEC)

When: Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 9 p.m.

Where: Colonial Life Arena (Capacity: 18,000)

How to watch/listen: ESPN2/107.5 FM

Series history: Alabama leads 16-31 (Last matchup: 90-71 Alabama win in 2022)

KenPom projection: Alabama wins 83-63 (South Carolina given 4 percent chance to win)

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