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

In the grand scheme of things, this has been a bad season. But South Carolina has been playing better basketball and has a chance to keep it going on Tuesday.

The Gamecocks (12-17, 2-14 SEC) will close their home slate against Georgia at Colonial Life Arena. Tip-off is at 6 p.m. on SEC Network.

Here are three things to watch for, an opponent scouting report on the Bulldogs, plus the latest injury report.

Senior Night

It’s Senior Night for the Gamecocks. They will honor Jacobi Wright, Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk, Myles Stute, Nick Pringle, and Jamarii Thomas. The ceremony will start approximately 25 minutes before tip-off. So a little bit after 5:30 p.m.

Wright has been with the program the longest, even predating head coach Lamont Paris. He played as a freshman at South Carolina under former head coach Frank Martin. Then, when Paris was hired, Wright stayed and has played for him over the last three seasons.

The rest of the seniors being honored were all transfers at one point. Bosmans-Verdonk has been here since Paris’ first year, and he will graduate with a law degree. Stute joined the program last year and has been out for almost all of SEC play with a blood clot injury.

Pringle and Thomas both transferred to South Carolina ahead of this season. They rank as the Gamecocks’ two highest leading scorers, after Collin Murray-Boyles, of course.

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Can the Gamecocks play spoiler once again?

South Carolina doesn’t have much to play for at this point, outside of pride. It would still take a miracle to win next week’s SEC Tournament just to make it to the NCAA Tournament as an automatic bid. But if there’s one thing the team has been doing well lately, it’s hurting other teams’ postseason chances.

The Gamecocks, who have won two of their last three, beat Texas and Arkansas, both bubble teams for March Madness. In Tuesday’s edition of Bracketology, the Razorbacks are a part of the last four in, while the Longhorns are in the first four out. Losing to the worst team, record-wise, in the SEC only hurt their odds.

Georgia is another team that’s on the bubble as well. If history repeats itself, the Bulldogs could be in trouble having to play in Colonial Life Arena. South Carolina has been a much better home team this year, currently 10-7.

Arkansas head coach John Calipari put it best: “If you played all home games, you’d be top-10.” And he’s probably right. For whatever reason, the Gamecocks tend to play much more competitively at home. That could lend itself well to playing spoiler for a third-straight home game.

Continue to put Jordan Butler on the floor

South Carolina is going to lose a lot of talent after this season. It will already be down a few seniors and possibly more players when the transfer portal opens. That’s why these last games are important to see what you have with players coming back.

There’s no guarantee that Murray-Boyles, who’s only a sophomore, will be back next year. Heck, after dropping a new career-high 35 points last Saturday, he doesn’t have much reason to since he’ll surely be an NBA Draft pick this summer. In that same game, though, there seemed to be an emphasis on giving Jordan Butler more minutes.

The sophomore forward hasn’t played a ton this year, only averaging 6.2 minutes per game. But over the last four games, he’s played double-digit minutes and scored nine points in 18 minutes against Arkansas.

Butler brings something different compared to the other big men on this team. The 7-footer can shoot well from behind the arc. He’s 32.3 percent from deep this year and went 2-for-4 last time out. He’s also blocked five shots in his last three games. Those are things that Paris can utilize well for next year, as Butler should see his role increase.

With three guaranteed games to go, it’s going to be crucial to continue to see what the Gamecocks have in their returning players. Again, the roster should look much different after this year. But there’s a lot of potential for Butler to be a star if Paris can get the most out of him.

Scouting the opponent

For a full look into Arkansas, click here to read Resume Check: Looking ahead to South Carolina basketball’s next opponent, the Georgia Bulldogs.

Injury report

For South Carolina: Myles Stute is OUT (blood clot).

For Georgia: All players are AVAILABLE.

Game details

Who: South Carolina (12-17, 2-14 SEC) vs. Georgia (18-11, 6-10 SEC)

When: Tuesday, Mar. 4 at 6 p.m.

Where: Colonial Life Arena (18,000)

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

ESPN gives South Carolina a 41.8 percent chance to win

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