South Carolina vs. Alabama: Four things to watch for, scouting the opponent and injury report

Hypothetically, there’s nowhere else for South Carolina to go but up after a 35-point loss. However, with another challenging SEC matchup on deck, it might be tough to get back on track for right now.

The Gamecocks (10-4, 0-1 SEC) will look to bounce back from an embarrassing loss to Mississippi State when No. 5 Alabama rolls into town on Wednesday. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. on SEC Network.

Here are four things to watch for and an opponent scouting report on the Crimson Tide.

Need to work through some of the lingering problems

With how rough that loss in Starkville was, there are clearly multiple problems with South Carolina. For starters, the team continues to get off to slow starts, putting themselves in an early hole and deficit to come back from. The turnovers have been through the roof, while they didn’t play good on either end of the floor.

So yeah, it’s not going to be some quick and easy fix. Everywhere you look, there’s something going on that needs improvement with this team. Maybe it won’t get any better on Wednesday against a very solid team in Alabama. But at the very least, the Gamecocks need to show that they have a pulse. That there’s a glimmer of hope things can be better down the road.

How do they do that? There’s not some magic spell that can be cast upon the team to create change. They just have to go out there and do it. Being back at home should help, especially if there’s a good crowd on hand. If there’s an easy way to at least start that process, it might just come down to playing with more energy and aggression. That could make an immediate difference.

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Bounce back game for CMB? It has to be

For as good as Collin Murray-Boyles has been, even he’s proven to be susceptible to a bad game. Over the weekend, the sophomore forward scored five points on 2-of-9 shooting with 10 rebounds. He also turned the ball over six times, which puts him at a team-worst 40 turnovers this season.

To Mississippi State’s credit, the Bulldogs did a great job of applying pressure and swarming him anytime the ball touched his hands. They knew he was the Gamecocks’ best player and how much their offense flowed through him. If they could take him out of the game, their chances of winning were going to be much higher. And that’s precisely what happened on Saturday.

Make no mistake, Mississippi State will not be the last team to take this approach to handling Murray-Boyles. But for as bad as his performance was, it’s hard to think that he won’t have a better showing next time out. He’s too good of a player to be down for long. For South Carolina’s sake, it needs to be just one off game from him.

With that said, who else is going to step up?

While a bounce back game for Murray-Boyles would be huge, others around him need to be better, as well. He can’t do it all on his own. And when he wasn’t clicking on Saturday, the majority of the team struggled around him.

Zachary Davis seemed to be the only player who looked ready to play with 22 points on 6-of-13 shooting. But even when he played good, he still had his rough moments. Speaking of Davis, South Carolina’s entire starting five combined for 22 points, the same amount as he scored in that game. That’s a rough statistic to take in.

With how inconsistent the transfer portal pickups have been this year, this would be the ideal time to come through and have a good game. Jamarii Thomas and Nick Pringle will be counted on heavily against Alabama. If there’s any chance of winning this game, they have to be at their best.

Nick Pringle’s first game against his old team

After spending two seasons at Alabama, Pringle is 14 games into his first season with the Gamecocks. He’ll get a chance to reconnect with his former team and play against them on Wednesday night.

Pringle was a key player in helping the Crimson Tide reach the Final Four last season. The 6-foot-10 forward played 32 minutes and went for 16 points and 11 rebounds in an Elite Eight win over Clemson to advance to play UConn in that Final Four out in Phoenix, Arizona.

So far this year at South Carolina, Pringle has put up some of the best numbers of his career. He’s averaging 10.4 points and 6.4 rebounds, both career highs for him. But despite that, something still feels missing.

When he was brought in, the Gamecocks needed him to become the guy who could be the answer to their issues with facing SEC big men last season. He didn’t show he could be that against Mississippi State, only hauling in three rebounds and not proving to be much of a paint presence. With a little bit more juice for this game, this could potentially be where he shows what South Carolina initially saw in him.

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Scouting the opponent

Fresh off its first-ever Final Four appearance, Alabama hasn’t missed a beat throughout much of this season. In head coach Nate Oats’ sixth season, the Tide are 12-2 with losses to No. 20 Purdue and No. 15 Oregon.

Despite these top-20 losses, Alabama has also proven to be just fine against quality competition with wins over No. 12 Houston, No. 13 Illinois and No. 17 Oklahoma. Most recently, the Tide annihilated the unbeaten Sooners in their first SEC game, winning 107-79 at Coleman Coliseum.

This is a team with an offense that can do a lot of scoring any given night. Since the start of last season, Alabama has scored 100 points or more in 14 games, which ranks No. 1 in college basketball. This will certainly be the biggest challenge for a South Carolina team that allows 67 points per game and comes off a performance where Mississippi State hung 85 points on the scoreboard.

The Tide are led by reigning first team All-SEC guard Mark Sears, who’s averaging 18.3 points per game on 40.5 percent shooting from the field. Sears torched the Gamecocks when they made the trip to Tuscaloosa last season, dropping 31 points on 10-of-13 shooting. He’s going to have the ball in his hands quite a bit, which means South Carolina will have to guard him well.

In the front court, Alabama’s Grant Nelson has been a force this year, with 13.1 points and 8.8 rebounds per game to show for it. Standing at 6-foot-11, 230 pounds, the senior will be a real issue for the Gamecocks to contain.

Also a regular starter for the tide, freshman guard Labaron Philon has been a nice piece. The Mobile, AL native is putting up 12.6 points on 53.5 percent shooting with 3.8 rebounds and four assists per game.

Injury report

Myles Stute has been ruled out for Wednesday’s game, per the SEC’s student-athlete availability report. It turns out his status moving forward isn’t looking too good. South Carolina announced on Tuesday that Stute has been “diagnosed with a left lower leg deep vein thrombosis (blood clot)” and will be out indefinitely.

In his second season with the program, Stute is averaging 5.4 points on 33.3 percent shooting from the field. He’s started in all 14 of South Carolina’s games so far this season.

Meanwhile, Alabama will also be down a key player for this game, though it’s been that way for a little while now. Latrell Wrightsell Jr., who is out for the year with an achilles tendon injury, is listed as “out” on the Crimson Tide’s injury report.

Game details

Who: South Carolina (10-4, 0-1 SEC) vs. No. 5 Alabama (12-2, 1-0 SEC)

When: Wednesday, Jan. 8 at 7 p.m.

Where: Colonial Life Arena (18,000)

How to watch/listen: SEC Network/107.5 The Game

ESPN gives South Carolina a 22 percent chance to win

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