South Carolina Basketball: Pregame Prognostications and How to Watch vs. LSU

A lackluster effort at home against Vanderbilt on Tuesday was the Gamecocks’ follow-up to a road victory in Oxford, Mississippi that ended their eight-game losing streak. The South Carolina basketball squad was dominated in the rebounding department and only brought the score into the realm of respectability through a garbage time run in the last two minutes. On Saturday, Lamont Paris will lead his troops into Baton Rouge, Louisiana for a 1:00 EST matchup with the LSU Tigers that can be watched on the SECNetwork and ESPN App.

LSU won its first conference battle of the season against a good Arkansas program but has since lost 13 straight SEC games. The only team with a worse conference record than South Carolina, the Bayou Bengals join the Gamecocks at the bottom of the conference in several team categories: the two squads both rank 12th or lower in team field goal percentage, points per game, rebounds per game, defensive rebounds per game, assists/turnover ratio, and blocks per game. Both teams are surprisingly good three-point shooting teams but are capable of long stretches of misses, relying on hot streaks to keep their efficiency numbers from plummeting.

In what is sure to be an ugly matchup, the Gamecocks may feel as if they have the upper hand. South Carolina has played better on the road this season, and Josh Gray’s improved paint play should allow for the Gamecocks to handle LSU’s size on the glass. Former Gamecock guard Trae Hannibal is a contributor for new Head Coach Matt McMahon and could be looking for some revenge after a less-than-amicable breakup during Frank Martin’s penultimate season in Columbia. Hannibal was too good to play as little as he did, so he left the program via the transfer portal. His matchup with streaky-shooting Meechie Johnson could be a pivotal one.

An unfortunate storyline to watch is the GG Jackson situation. Clearly unhappy with his usage of late due to disciplinary issues, Jackson has further compounded the issue by being a less-than-great teammate and has not been fully engaged during the last two contests. An obvious disconnect exists between Paris and his star freshman, and the Gamecocks would be better off if the two could somehow resolve their issues on the flight to the Bayou.

Prediction

A game full of misses is often decided through offensive rebounding. This could very well be the case on Saturday with two struggling offenses squaring off. Josh Gray has the fourth-most offensive boards in the SEC and will be the largest man on the court (as he often is). LSU has superior overall talent, but the matchup could be just right for the Gamecocks to win the county fair’s prettiest pig competition that will be held on Saturday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.