South Carolina Basketball: Thumbs up, thumbs down after USC-Upstate win

. South Carolina Gamecocks. TURNOVERS . Thumbs Down. The Gamecocks didn’t hold onto the ball well enough on Monday. The team had 15 turnovers that resulted in 15 direct points for the Spartans. That is not good enough. If Carolina wasn’t shooting quite so efficiently, 15 turnovers is the type of number that could have made the game much closer than it needed to be. They also dropped several rebounds and loose balls out of bounds. Those plays don’t get counted as turnovers in the box score, but they are a lost possession nonetheless.

REBOUNDING DOWN LOW . Thumbs Down. South Carolina basketball has got to get more from their big guys on the boards. BJ Mack, Stephen Clark, and Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk combined to bring down just 7 rebounds in 46 minutes. That won’t cut it. Josh Gray did his part (6 in 11 minutes), but the other post players have to secure more missed shots. BBV plays with high effort, so the rebounds eventually will come for him in his limited action off the bench, but more Josh Gray minutes will be needed if Mack and Clark don’t get the job done. It didn’t bite Coach Paris’ team against Upstate because Zach Davis, Ta’Lon Cooper, Meechie Johnson, and Myles Stute combined for 26 boards. Eventually, the high rebounding total from the guards and wings won’t be there, and when the Gamecocks play bigger and more athletic teams, this weakness will be exposed if the bigs don’t figure things out in the rebounding department.. . South Carolina Gamecocks

Thumbs Down. South Carolina did a good job getting to the free throw line in Game 1. Meechie Johnson led the way with 8 attempts, and the 19 total trips to the line is a good number. However, making just over 60% of those shots from the charity stripe is not. That mark will need to improve moving forward.. . South Carolina Gamecocks. MISSING FREE THROWS

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