South Carolina basketball's defensive mindset leading to wins
South Carolina men’s basketball has been putting a heavy focus on the defensive side of the floor recently. It has been leading to buckets on the other end and most importantly, wins.
In their most recent game against Notre Dame, they held the Irish to just 53 points. The Gamecocks played their best defense in crunch time. They held Notre Dame to 7-of-26 shooting from the field in the second half.
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“Defense is always a main focus for us because we know that if we’re one of the best teams in the country on defense it’s going to lead to points in transition and great offensive shots for us,” forward BJ Mack said. “Defense is always a main priority for us.”
The Gamecocks are also averaging a total of 63.8 points per game in scoring defense which has them in a tie for 50th in the country. It dips down to 61.2 per game when you subtract the Virginia Tech game.
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The Notre Dame game was a slower-scoring game offensively for South Carolina. They came in hot scoring 76.6 a game. After a tough night of shooting, it wound up being their efforts on the defensive end that made the difference.
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“We can do a lot of good things defensively as you can see as a whole team. From not letting the shot off, getting turnovers, and being real active in the gaps and stuff like that,” guard Meechie Johnson said. “It’s a great feeling when you can hold teams to this 53 points, if we can do that I think we’ll be in good shape.
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South Carolina does not have a starter that has a negative plus-minus rating according to Sports-Reference.com. There was only one starter in the negatives on Tuesday and two reserve players were also positive.
“We really believe in our defense and our work in practice. It’s amazing that we get to go out there and put it all together,” Johnson said.
