The biggest problems South Carolina faces as SEC play heats up

It’s just one bad loss, but it can become a whole lot worse if things don’t turn around in a hurry. South Carolina might be 10-4 this season, but after an 80-55 loss to Mississippi State on Saturday, it’s off to a horrid start in SEC play.

The Gamecocks were severely outmatched in their weekend trip to Starkville. They never led at any point against the Bulldogs and were out of the fight by the end of the first half. It was the culmination of all that had gone wrong in the previous games coming together to create one big snowball.

As the conference slate only heats up from here, let’s take a look at why South Carolina is struggling and the many problems it’s facing right now.

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Slow starts

Of everything that South Carolina has dealt with this season, slow starts have been one of the more consistent issues. It has trailed at halftime in five games, losing twice. The games have been a lot closer than maybe they should be, especially in non-conference play.

In the first half of games, the Gamecocks are averaging roughly 32.8 points, while they are averaging more than 40 second-half points. So clearly, judging by the way they’ve played, they’re much more of a second-half team. That’s not necessarily an issue; it just means they tend to get better as the game moves along. But in a conference as good as the SEC, we’ve already seen what can happen when South Carolina doesn’t play well for a full 40 minutes.

Against Mississippi State, the team racked up more turnovers (10) than made field goals (6) in the first half. By the buzzer, the Gamecocks were already down by 25 points and had only scored 18 points on 23.1 percent shooting.

The game was basically over within minutes because South Carolina couldn’t get into an offensive rhythm and looked sluggish on defense. It played sloppy with a lot of careless passes resulting in turnovers. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs were taking good shots and winning the rebound battle to create those extra opportunities. They shot 51.5 percent from the field en route to a 43-point opening period.

It’s one thing to overcome halftime deficits against mid-major teams. That’s to be expected as an SEC program. But it’s a lot tougher to expect those results with the way South Carolina plays in the first half against a higher quality opponent. There could be a lot of lopsided games in league play if this trend continues.

Too many turnovers

One of the killers to an embarrassing first half in Starkville were the number of turnovers that the Gamecocks committed. They turned the ball over 10 times and ended up with 14 on the day, the second-highest total this season.

They’re averaging 11.4 turnovers and finishing with more than 10 turnovers in 11 of their first 14 games this season. South Carolina owns a -0.8-turnover margin, which ranks No. 250 in college basketball. None of these numbers are good by any means. Especially with how things went out in Starkville, there was a lot of bad passing.

There was one pass from Myles Stute that went right through Jacobi Wright’s legs and out of bounds. Later in the game, Cam Scott faced some pressure from Mississippi State’s defense and threw the ball into the air hoping somebody on his team would come down with the ball. But it sailed into no man’s land for another silly mistake.

While last year’s team wasn’t perfect, they were much more careful when they had the ball in their possession. They averaged nearly one turnover less per game and finished with a 0.4 turnover margin.

Sometimes, turnovers are going to happen by way of playing an opponent with good defense. It’s the self-inflicted mistakes where the Gamecocks need to slow things down and be more aware of who they are passing the ball to. Starting to do things like that can make a big difference.

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Have the replacements been all that good so far?

Replacing three starters from last year’s team was always going to be a tall order, let alone three good players with valuable experience and leadership qualities. With how things have gone so far this year, it’s clear how much the Gamecocks are missing Ta’Lon Cooper, Meechie Johnson and BJ Mack.

To be fair, South Carolina went out and brought in new talent from the transfer portal to fill those holes on the roster. Jamarii Thomas, a solid scoring guard from Norfolk State, looked to be the guy who could replace either Cooper or Johnson. Needing a big presence in the paint, the Gamecocks landed Nick Pringle, a 6-foot-10 forward who played at Alabama. They also added Jordan Butler, another big man from Missouri.

But it’s been a mixed bag as far as results this season. None of these players have been bad by any means. It just hasn’t seemed to click the same way it did last season with Cooper and Mack both being portal pickups. Thomas is averaging 12.1 points, but he’s done it on 37.4 percent shooting, a three percent dip from his 40.4 percent year at Norfolk State.

Pringle is actually having the best season of his career from a statistical standpoint with 10.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. He’s been way better at the free throw line, shooting at a 69.4 percent rate this year. But he was brought in to be the player who could compete against other prominent big men in the SEC. And in his first chance to prove himself, he was a non-factor with only three rebounds in 28 minutes on Saturday.

As for Butler, he hasn’t played much throughout this season, only averaging 4.4 minutes and 1.7 points per game.

There’s still 17 games left to go in conference play, which means a lot could change between now and then. However, as things currently stand, the transfers haven’t been nearly as impactful as those who came before. It’s not even just about the numbers; it’s also the experience and leadership guys like Cooper and Mack had. Those qualities are irreplaceable.

Lacking another consistent player to compliment Collin Murray-Boyles

Going off the point about the aforementioned portal pickups, South Carolina seems to be a team led by one star player. Collin Murray-Boyles, for the most part, has been exceptional in his sophomore year, leading the team with 15.8 points and 9.4 rebounds per game.

When he’s at his best, he’s a very unguardable basketball player, especially at his position. But in the Mississippi State game, he had his worst outing of the year with five points on 2-of-9 shooting and six turnovers. It seemed that anytime he touched the ball, a flock of defenders came right after him. And who could blame them? They know Murray-Boyles is the team’s best player and what kind of difference it would make if he were a non-factor.

Once he couldn’t get it going, the rest of the team fell into a similar slump, as well. Zachary Davis was the only player who had a decent game, going for 22 points on 6-of-13 shooting. Otherwise, it was a rough showing from the group in a game where they shot 29.1 percent.

This will not be the last time that an SEC team uses this approach to beat South Carolina. It wouldn’t be surprising if every team tried to do what Mississippi State did so well. Murray-Boyles is going to be fine and get himself back on track. He’s been very solid all year.

As for the rest of the team, others will need to step up. Some players have shined in certain games but there hasn’t been one consistent player outside of Murray-Boyles game after game. It’s okay to have a good supporting cast around your best player. But the Gamecocks need more out of other players to compete in this conference.

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The rest of the SEC is VERY good

It just so happens that when South Carolina isn’t playing great basketball, every other SEC team has been on another level this season. It’s not far-fetched to say this will be a double-digit bid league come Selection Sunday in a few months.

The 15 other teams are ahead of the Gamecocks in the NET rankings — and it’s not particularly close. LSU, who lost its SEC opener to Vanderbilt on Saturday, sits at No. 60. Every other team ranks inside the top 50 with seven being in the top 15.

To really drive home how good things have been, the SEC now has the second-highest single-season conference rating in the KenPom era. With a +20.35 rating, it only trails behind the 1996-97 ACC, which had a +21.37 rating.

So yes, this conference is really tough, and it’s only going to get tougher from here for South Carolina. It will get set to host No. 5 Alabama and No. 2 Auburn this week. After that, the Gamecocks will have 12 more Quad 1 games, along with five Quad 2 matchups sprinkled in.

It’s not necessarily their fault that the SEC is insanely good this year. It just doesn’t help that they aren’t playing the worst of the bunch.

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