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

South Carolina lost again on Saturday, this time in a tale of two halves. After outplaying Florida in the first half (but still trailing by four), the Gamecocks got blitzed in the second and fell by a final score of 88-67. The loss sets a new program record for consecutive conference losses as USC is now 0-12 in SEC play.

Here are five things learned (or re-learned) from watching the Gamecocks on Saturday night.

The Gamecocks can’t (or won’t?) shoot enough from outside

For the fourth time in the last six games, South Carolina failed to shoot more than 20 3-point attempts. The trend has been even worse of late as the Gamecocks shot from outside 14 times against Ole Miss and just 12 times against Florida. In both of those games, only four of their perimeter shots fell through the cylinder.

In the modern world of basketball, it is nearly impossible to win when a team makes four 3-pointers. This is especially true against a strong offensive team like Florida.

Making matters worse, South Carolina made their first three shots from the arc against Florida. Then, in the game’s final 31 minutes and 36 seconds, they went just 1-for-9.

Displaying the primary problem with the Gamecocks’ 12 total attempts, Florida shot the ball from the perimeter 28 times Saturday. Despite missing four in a row and then three consecutive in the first half, the Gators finished at 50%. In total, UF scored 42 points from 3-point land. Knowing that South Carolina earned just 12 points from outside, it’s easy to see how the Gators won big.

The ball isn’t valuable enough

In any sport that involves possession of a ball (basketball, football, soccer, etc.), the most valuable thing on the playing surface is the ball itself. South Carolina doesn’t always play basketball as if the ball is particularly valuable.

The Gamecocks turned the ball over 13 times on Saturday (not a ridiculous number), but with the number of loose dribbles, in-traffic pass attempts, and fumbled catches they had against Florida, it easily could have been 20. Plus, of those 13 giveaways, 11 were live-ball turnovers.

Outside of a few fights won by Collin Murray-Boyles, Nick Pringle, and Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk, Florida seemed to come away with just about every 50-50 ball and contested rebound. On several occasions, a USC rebounder could have secured the pumpkin but elected instead to tip the ball out, usually right into the waiting arms of a Florida Gator.

Playing against one of the best teams in the country, South Carolina needed to make sure they didn’t give away any opportunities to possess the basketball. They didn’t do that.

Again, one run ended the game

The final scoring margin against Florida was ugly. The Gators’ 88-67 win looks like a straight-forward blowout. However, for those who watched the game, the 21-point difference doesn’t tell the whole story.

The reality of Carolina’s situation on Saturday is this: for large portions of the game, the Gamecocks played pretty evenly with Florida, but one stretch in the 2nd half killed any chances the team had at pulling the upset.

The opening 7:26 of the second period was all-Gators. Todd Golden’s team whipped South Carolina to the tune of a 24-7 run. During that stretch, the Gamecocks gave up six made 3-pointers. Most of them were wide-open looks, too.

Some of that run came thanks to poor perimeter defense from the garnet-clad backcourt. Some of it came because of bad Gamecock offense that led to favorable Florida chances. All of it, though, was extremely damaging to the team’s chances of winning the game.

In another installment of “Carolina might have won if not for [insert backbreaking reason here]”, Lamont Paris’ team couldn’t put together a full 40 minutes on Saturday night. In less than eight minutes of action, they erased 32 other minutes of solid-enough basketball. That has been a trend this season.

Paris, though, is sick of hearing about being close. He said as much after the game. You can read all of his postgame comments here.

The Gamecock bigs got punched in the mouth

Collin Murray-Boyles and Nick Pringle did some good things at times on offense against Florida, and, on defense, the frontcourt duo made some nice plays on the ball that resulted in blocks and steals.

However, perhaps with the benefit of a Florida-friendly whistle, the Gators “out-physicaled” South Carolina down low. Murray-Boyles and Pringle combined for just five total rebounds in 51 total minutes. They also both turned the ball over twice and had a shot rejected in the post. The missed rebounds, in particular, led to some second-chance points for Florida and quick transition runouts when they were missed on the offensive end. For the game, the Gators had eight 2nd-chance points and 26 points on fast breaks.

The Gamecocks’ big men combined to go 12-for-14 from the free throw line (good) but only took 13 total shots from the field to go with those free attempts (not good).

Florida’s starting posts Thomas Haugh and Rueben Chinyelu outrebounded CMB and Pringle 12-5. They also combined to go 11-for-16 from the field, including 8-for-10 in the paint.

Even with all of that, USC still isn’t that far off

Perhaps the saddest reality of all for South Carolina basketball fans this season is that, even with all of the easily identifiable faults on the court, the Gamecocks always seem to be one or two issues away from a breakthrough.

Unfortunately, though, those one or two issues are not always consistent.

Against Florida, the Gators’ early success in the 2nd half was the biggest culprit. In other games, turnovers have doomed Carolina’s winning chances. In still others, poor play creation or shot-making has been the bugaboo.

If South Carolina can play a full 40 minutes of solid basketball, a win in SEC play wouldn’t be hard to imagine. In fact, if the Gamecocks play up to their capabilities, only the road contest against Tennessee feels significantly out of reach.

Predicting USC to pick up a win or two down the stretch feels difficult right now, though. The roster construction/fit hasn’t been good enough this season, and the Gamecocks have struggled tremendously to finish games at home and to avoid giving up huge runs on the road.

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