Resume Check: Looking ahead to South Carolina basketball's next opponent, the Texas Longhorns

South Carolina basketball hasn’t won since December and now sits at 10-16 on the season. The Gamecocks are now also 0-13 in SEC play. Those 13 losses mark the most consecutive conference defeats ever for USC. The most recent loss came in Baton Rouge at the hands of the LSU Tigers.

There are only five more opportunities for South Carolina to pick up a win against an SEC opponent and avoid the dubious distinction of going winless in league play. As things stand, the Gamecocks will be underdogs in all of those games. Their next opportunity to take the floor will come on Saturday against the Texas Longhorns.

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Resume Check: Texas Longhorns

Record: 16-10 (5-8 in SEC)
AP Ranking: N/A
Last Week: Loss to Alabama 103-80 in Austin; Win over Kentucky 82-78 in Austin
Previous Meeting: South Carolina Gamecocks and Texas Longhorns have met twice and not since 1982

Texas’ first year in the SEC has had some ups and downs. Even so, the Longhorns currently project to be on the NCAA Tournament bubble. Right now, ESPN’s bracketologist Joe Lunardi has Rodney Terry’s team in the field of 68.

In the non-conference slate, Texas went 11-2. Those losses came to an Ohio State team that would be ranked the next week and a ranked (and defending National Champion) UConn squad. The ‘Horns also picked up solid wins over Syracuse and St. Joseph’s on a neutral floor and against NC State on the road. In SEC play, UT has three ranked victories.

Ahead of this weekend’s game against South Carolina, Texas ranks in the middle of the pack in the SEC in both team scoring and scoring defense. The Longhorns rank 8th with a 78.7 points-per-game average and 9th with 69.3 points allowed per contest. Coach Terry’s bunch likes to play games with wide-open outside shooting. Currently, they rank 4th in the SEC in 3-point percentage and 12th in the conference in 3-point shooting percentage allowed. Four Longhorn starters (Tre Johnson, Arthur Kaluma, Jordan Pope, and Tramon Mark) make better than 35% of their perimeter jumpers.

In a bit of statistical oddity, the Texas Longhorns own the SEC’s 6th-best turnover margin despite being one of the conference’s worst at forcing live ball turnovers. As a whole, they don’t protect the rim all that well, but big man Kadin Shedrick is excellent at altering shots and is tied for fourth in the league in blocks per game.

On offense, most possessions run through guard Tre Johnson. At the time of this writing, he leads the Southeastern Conference in scoring at 19.8 points per game. He has also taken 133 more shots this season than any player on Texas’ team. At 6-6, the star freshman can do a little bit of everything on the court, but he is at his best as a ball-dominant scorer and long, disruptive defender on the wing. He has earned several SEC Freshman of the Week honors this season.

Other than Johnson, Texas will start four veteran players. Pending the Longhorns’ injury situation, it could be Johnson plus four seniors. Against Kentucky on Saturday, UT started Shedrick, Larry Julian, Tramon Mark, and Jayson Kent next to Johnson. Arthur Kaluma–another senior–has been a starter most of the season but could miss the game against the Gamecocks.

Texas is pretty beat up from an injury standpoint. Versatile forward Devon Pryor did not play against Alabama last week but returned for the Kentucky game. Kaluma, the team’s leading rebounder, left the ‘Bama game with an injury and missed the Kentucky contest. Guard Chendall Weaver hasn’t played in over a month because of a shoulder issue. Texas didn’t play an early-week game, so the Horns didn’t release an SEC-mandated availability report this week. An updated report will release on Friday night.

The Gamecocks and Longhorns will tip off at 8:30 p.m. in Colonial Life Arena on Saturday. SEC Network will broadcast the game, and the ESPN app will stream it.

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