'We definitely earned it': How did things go so wrong for South Carolina in upset loss?

Lamont Paris just had that feeling.

He had it the night before the game. Then once the game began, he had that same feeling.

South Carolina would open the season against North Florida, a team that had been inconsistent last season. There was no reason to believe the Gamecocks would lose, especially not on opening night after such a great season last year. But Paris had his reasons to feel slightly concerned.

And then his worst fears were realized. Not only did the Ospreys play the way he imagined they would, but South Carolina also didn’t play well in a shocking 74-71 loss on Monday.

“Honestly, if I’m being real honest, which I always do, last night had me worried about what today would really look like because of who they are that way. That’s the reality of it,” the third-year head coach said. “And they held true to that as they really competed and out rebounded us and did all the things that really don’t have to do with whether you have a good day at the office or a bad day at the office, which we had multiple guys that did not have a great day at the office today.”

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The scouting report on North Florida would say it shoots a lot of three-pointers, which it does and certainly did in this game, knocking down 10 threes on Monday. Paris already knew that. But he also knew how hard they were going to play. And this would make the game that much tougher on South Carolina.

“They competed. Every loose ball, they were there first. Any time we dribbled, they had two hands on it. That’s DNA,” Paris said. “And so while I didn’t know some of these new faces they had and exactly how they would play, I did know that.”

While the Ospreys did what they needed to do to win the game, the Gamecocks had their chances, as well. They just couldn’t get out of their own way and create separation. Part of it came down to missed opportunities. It’s also fair to argue part of it came down to having a sluggish performance.

“I don’t know if we needed this, but we definitely earned it. We earned exactly what we got today,” Paris said. “Honestly, this is exactly based on what we did and all the things how the game probably should have gone. … I think we got what we earned just based on how we ultimately played.”

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South Carolina shot better overall than North Florida at a 46 percent clip, but it lost the rebound battle 43-37 and went 14-for-25 at the free throw line. Combine that with an apparent lack of energy and the outcome was what it was.

“Energy and all that was just not great,” Paris said. “Even when we’d make a run, it wasn’t like, I know the vibe when guys know, ‘Okay, here we are guys. We got that out of our system. Let’s play now.’ Honestly, I just don’t think I felt that they felt that throughout the game.”

If there’s two things Paris doesn’t like, it’s coaching effort and having to constantly repeat himself. That’s not to say South Carolina’s effort wasn’t good on Monday, obviously not good enough in a bad loss, but Paris thought maybe there was too much hype going into this game from within the team between coaches and players.

“Our whole thing has been we approach the game the same way no matter who we play. If the same people that are going to overlook, and I say overlook, but just be overconfident against an opponent that they just think they should beat are also secretly, no matter what they say and and no matter how they act and all the bravado that might be there, are also the same people that are doubting themselves against somebody that people think are supposed to beat them — they just are,” Paris said.

“And so, that needs to be corrected. Those are individual decisions that they have to make is to respect the game, respect every opponent, respect them all. But at the same time, you’re not going to fear anybody. There’s nobody that you should feel like you’re not going to beat.”

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When it comes down to it, this will go down as a game South Carolina will wish it didn’t lose. Should the Ospreys not have a miraculous season, this game will go down as a Quad 4 loss for the Gamecocks. To put it into perspective, that is a tier meant for the lowest ranked teams in college basketball. Not an ideal way to open the season.

But the good news for South Carolina is it will have a chance to quickly flush this bad loss when it returns to action on Friday against SC State (7 p.m., SECN+).

“Next day that we practice, I’ll say come with our heads up ready to work. Don’t come in there like, ‘Oh, we just lost’ type. I just feel like we need to go in there and just get to work,” Jamarii Thomas said.

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