South Carolina playing with 'nothing to lose' in SEC Tournament rematch with Arkansas

Lamont Paris knew there wasn’t anything accidental about what had happened the last time South Carolina and Arkansas met. Putting it simply, the Gamecocks played well, and the Razorbacks did not.

The third-year head coach was referring to his team’s 72-53 win over Arkansas earlier this month. And now, just 11 days since that meeting, the two teams will square off once again, this time in the first round of the SEC Tournament.

Because of how everything went for South Carolina in that game, Paris doesn’t anticipate needing to do a complete overhaul of the game plan for this rematch. And why would he? If it worked so well the first time, it could again the second.

“We will go into the game just because we played well and defended them well, especially on that side of the ball with a similar game plan,” Paris said. “Certainly, (Arkansas) will make some adjustments. They may, I don’t know. I can only coach one team. But also offensively, I think we exposed a couple of things, just in terms of how Collin (Murray-Boyles) was able to attack Big Z (Zvonimir Ivišić).”

In that initial matchup, the Gamecocks were better in virtually every aspect. Offensively, they shot 47 percent from the floor and held Arkansas to 29 percent shooting and only 14 points in the first half.

Another reason why things worked out well boiled down to South Carolina’s playmaking in the frontcourt. Without leading scorer Adou Thiero on the floor, this put a lot more stress on Arkansas’ bigs. Whoever the Razorbacks threw at the Gamecocks were no match. Murray-Boyles had a career-high 35 points, while Nick Pringle nearly had a double-double with 18 points and nine rebounds.

“I would hope so,” said Murray-Boyles when asked if he expects Arkansas to do anything differently against him. “Yeah, I would think so. But whatever they throw at us, I think we’ll be good. I have trust in the team.”

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Murray-Boyles, who was named to the All-SEC Second Team on Monday, admitted the previous matchup is still “pretty fresh.” He believes it helps them to know Arkansas’ tendencies and what they do well.

“I feel like the team knows what they’re about to come into,” the sophomore forward said. “(Arkansas is) about to play harder, they’re going to attack more. So I think we’re ready for that.”

While the overall game plan won’t change, Paris and South Carolina have focused on some of the things that Arkansas may do to have a better outcome. The Razorbacks most likely putting more attention on Murray-Boyles is one of them.

“They didn’t double the post a whole lot in that game. They did some, but not a ton. So we’ve worked on some stuff like that,” Paris said. “If they’re completely committed to making sure Collin doesn’t get as many opportunities, probably similar to what Tennessee did that way. If they played a little more zone, they played a little zone in that game. So we went over some zone just in case they play more zone.

“They pressed a little bit, but not much in that game. But we’ve gone over some of that stuff, in case they decide. So it’s just really more about trying to be prepared for something else that they could change.”

There will be a lot at stake for both teams going into Wednesday’s game in Nashville. For Arkansas, it’s a game it can’t afford to lose, being on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament. As for South Carolina, a win would temporarily keep the season alive. But it will need to win five games in the next five days to make the tournament as an automatic bid.

That hasn’t been the Gamecocks’ main focus, though. They know their season will be over if they lose on Wednesday or at any point this week. That’s why they are going into this game not feeling a lot of pressure.

“We have nothing to lose, to be honest,” Murray-Boyles said. “Put it all on the court. Some of the guys last time playing college ball, so they’re going to put everything on the floor, and that’ll really push the rest of the team.”

South Carolina and Arkansas will tip off from Bridgestone Arena at 1 p.m. on SEC Network. The winner will advance to the second round and play Ole Miss on Thursday.

“You just have to play. Nobody has any sort of home-court advantage,” Paris said. “You have to go out there and execute. And when you get opportunities. You have to play well.”

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