What to watch for: South Carolina basketball travels to Assembly Hall to take on No. 16 Indiana Hoosiers

After a tough opening night loss to the North Florida Ospreys, South Carolina basketball bounced back. The Gamecocks beat South Carolina State and then looked good in a convincing win over a good Towson team. This weekend, though, Lamont Paris’ team faces its biggest test of the young season.

The Gamecocks are traveling to Bloomington, Indiana for an out-of-conference matchup with the Indiana Hoosiers. Indiana enters the contest 2-0 after whipping SIU-Edwardsville and Eastern Illinois in tune-up games.

Fans who want to tune in to watch the matchup on Saturday can only find it on Peacock. Tip-off is 3:00 p.m.

Here are some things to watch for heading into Saturday’s big game.

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Will the 3-point shooting woes end?

So far this season, South Carolina basketball is shooting under 30% from behind the 3-point arc.

The Gamecocks have averaged shooting 21 shots from the perimeter through three games. Unfortunately, they’ve only made about six of them per contest. With an offense predicated on making shots at the rim and from the arc, the Gamecocks can’t continue shooting that poorly.

Most of the time, those numbers aren’t going to be good enough to beat Indiana. Last year, against Power Conference competition, the Gamecocks went 3-6 in games in which their 3-point shooting percentage was 30% or lower. Conversely, the Hoosiers lost just once during the 2023-2024 campaign when holding opponents to 30% or below on outside jumpers.

The good news for Carolina, though, is that some of the team’s best shooters haven’t shot well yet.

Combo guard Jacbo Wright has been good from outside (7-for-15), and Morris Ugusuk, Arden Conyers, and Jordan Butler have made some shots in limited attempts. However, Myles Stute, Cam Scott, and Jamarii Thomas are a combined 6-for-29. Coupled with Zach Davis’ 1-10 start, it is easy to see how the Gamecocks are making just 29.7% so far.

Against a tough Indiana defense, South Carolina has to be better. Some of that is just doing a better job making the looks that they’ve been getting. Some of it, though, could be that the Gamecocks need to come up with some different ways of getting their shots up. Last year, the most open shots of the year came in pick-and-pop situations. This year, other than a couple of attempts from Jordan Butler, that hasn’t been part of the game plan. Collin Murray-Boyles has improved his shot; will this be the game fans get to see it?

All of the 3-point numbers become even more important when one realizes how frequently teams shoot from outside against the Hoosiers. Indiana is a pretty good defensive team, but they have allowed an average of 23 3-point attempts per game so far this year.

Will the Gamecocks guard the perimeter?

While there were many problems inside Colonial Life Arena for South Carolina’s loss to North Florida, effort was one that Coach Paris called out during his post-game media availability.

When he expounded on that issue, Paris seemed to be spitting each word when he talked about his team’s perimeter defense and overall defensive rotations.

North Florida only took 16 3s, but the vast majority of them were uncovered. Some of the shots were wide-open. Others were taken because Gamecock defenders simply didn’t put their hands up to contest. Still others came as a result of poor defensive rotations or bad ball-screen defense. Had the Ospreys made a decent percentage of those open looks, USC would have lost by a bigger margin.

Even against South Carolina State, there were some defensive lapses that led to too many outside shots. However, the Gamecock defense and effort were improved, so solid closeouts helped limit the Bulldogs to sub-30% efficiency.

Indiana is not a team that relies on the 3-ball. They have shot well over 60% inside the arc, though, so South Carolina cannot afford to give them easy looks on the long balls that they do take. This is especially true for Mackenzie Mgbako, who might be the best shooter on the floor this Saturday.

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Who wins the NBA matchup?

Collin Murray-Boyles and Mackenzie Mgbako are the two biggest NBA Draft prospects in this game. Adding to the intrigue in this game, the two forwards likely will be matched up more than a few times on Saturday. Murray-Boyles is a primary power forward, while Mgbako plays both small forward and power forward. It seems likely that CMB and top wing defender Zach Davis will draw the Mgbako assignment most of the game.

Mgbako will play all over the court this Saturday and will be a difficult guard for Lamont Paris’ team. He can shoot, he can get to the basket, and he can fight down low for putback buckets. Whether Murray-Boyles, Davis, or someone else is defending Mgbako, the Gamecocks have to run him off the perimeter (he’s making 67%) of the 3-pointers so far this season, but they also have to get a body on him when shots go up (he’s leading the Hoosiers in rebounding).

In the instances in which Mgbako has to guard CMB, the Carolina sophomore should have a strength advantage. If No. 30 can have success backing down Mgbako (or getting him in foul trouble), that will

Can the Gamecock bigs own the paint?

Collin Murray-Boyles, Nick Pringle, Jordan Butler, and Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk will be extremely important against Indiana. The Hoosiers have been a better rebounding team thus far this season than the Gamecocks and have seven players who are at least 6’7″.

If South Carolina gets whipped on the glass this Saturday, that won’t bode well for the team’s chances of victory. Indiana is too efficient on 2-point shots to allow them to get second-chance opportunities. Combo forward Mackenzie Mgbako leads the Hoosiers in rebounding, so wings like Zach Davis and Myles Stute will have a role to play in keeping the crimson and cream off the boards.

The Gamecocks also need to score better in the paint.

In basketball, when big fellas perform well, it usually results in good field goal efficiency numbers. South Carolina is 9-1 in their last 10 games in which they have shot 50% from the field. If the frontcourt can carry the day, that will spell good things for Lamont Paris’ South Carolina basketball team.

Murray-Boyles certainly has done his part. The star sophomore is averaging over 20 points per game this year on 63% shooting. Wing Zach Davis has done really well at the rim, too. Pringle has been somewhat inconsistent inside, and Butler and Bosmans-Verdonk are shooting just 25% from inside the arc. USC has to do better, as a team, to convert on its easy opportunities.

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Will the USC freshmen make an impact?

So far in the 2024-2025 season, the Gamecocks have relied on their experienced players. The team’s three freshmen (true freshman Cam Scott and redshirt freshmen Arden Conyers and Austin Herro) have not had much of an impact through three games.

Scott (21%) and Conyers (33%) haven’t shot the ball efficiently this year, and Herro hasn’t pushed into the rotation at all. Chances are, if a win is in the cards for South Carolina on Saturday, one of the young wings will have to make an impact. Most likely, that means Cam Scott or Arden Conyers would have to come in and hit a few shots to keep putting points on the board when the Gamecock second unit is in the game.

In particular, Scott entered the season with high expectations. Lamont Paris even joked this preseason that he would “work for free” next year if the Lexington High School alum doesn’t wind up making the SEC All-Freshman squad. Against Indiana, South Carolina could really use a version of Cam Scott who belongs on postseason award lists.

As the future of the South Carolina basketball program, the freshman class will be important at some point this season, and Saturday could be an example of this.

Scouting the Hoosiers

South Carolina will enter this game as the underdog. This isn’t because the Gamecocks aren’t a good team; instead, it’s because Indiana is good. After a down year last season, Mike Woodson’s team is “back” and should make a return to the NCAA Tournament.

Indiana will play with two bigs at times but also will throw a variation of the 4-out offense at opponents. However, it’s not to generate a ton of outside shots. Instead, the Hoosiers space the floor to create driving lanes. The extremely athletic roster is full of players who like to play downhill. They will take open 3s (and Mackenzie Mgbako will make plenty), but they really want to attack the basket for easy buckets or trips to the foul line.

Mackenzie Mgbako is the Hoosiers’ best overall player. The versatile forward is the best outside shooter and the best slasher on the team. He’s a good rebounder, too, and at 6’8″ will take advantage of smaller players down low.

Big man Oumar Ballo (an Arizona transfer) will be featured heavily. He is huge (7’0″ and 260 pounds) and was an All-Pac 12 performer. He can score, rebound, and defend down low. Fellow big Malik Reneau is skilled enough to play alongside Ballo without clogging things up down low.

Off the bench, guard Trey Galloway is not a traditional 6th man. Instead of providing an offensive spark through shot-making, last year’s starting point guard sparks his team through shot-creation. The senior has 17 assists in 35 minutes this year.

Game details

Who: South Carolina Gamecocks (2-1) vs. No. 16 Indiana Hoosiers (2-0)

Where: Assembly Hall; Bloomington, Indiana; University of Indiana

When: 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 16th

How to watch/listen: Peacock; 107.5 FM The Game, 1320 AM

ESPN gives South Carolina just a 29.8% chance to win.

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