South Carolina Basketball: Three thumbs up, three thumbs down vs. Utah

. South Carolina Gamecocks. TURNOVERS . Thumbs Down. Turnovers. Most of this season has been a struggle for the Gamecocks in the turnover department, but Sunday was the worst. The number is a bit inflated by some questionable offensive foul calls (ever heard of flopping, officials?), but the Gamecocks still gave the ball away 23 times, the most they have had in a game since 2019. Numerous passes went straight from white jerseys to red jerseys as if they were intended for the Utah players who “stole” them, and MiLaysia Fulwiley and Raven Johnson dribbled into unnecessary traffic several times, losing the ball for no apparent reason. To make matters worse, the Gamecocks could have surrendered the ball even more times as they had numerous other poor passes that should have been intercepted by Utah that the Utes instead dropped or knocked out of bounds. With how this team has played so far in the 2023-2024 season, no other team can beat the Gamecocks; however, if USC gives the ball away this much, they certainly can beat themselves.

Thumbs Down. Alissa Pili is really good at basketball. The Utah star was the Pac-12 Player of the Year last season, and she put her best career scoring day on Sunday. Far too often, the Gamecocks lost her on defense, something that shouldn’t be so easy to do. She was left open on the perimeter, and she was left in one-on-one post matchups. Neither of those things were part of Coach Staley’s game plan for defending Pili. The Gamecocks cannot allow Pili or any other star player to take over to the degree that she did on Sunday. It almost cost Carolina the game as they allowed the forward to score 37 points on just 15-23 shooting.. . South Carolina Gamecocks. ALISSA PILI

Thumbs Down. Utah had 17 turnovers against the Gamecocks. At surface level, that sounds like Carolina had a nice day taking the ball away from the Utes. However, USC had just 6 total steals for the game, meaning that only 6 of those 17 turnovers were live-ball turnovers. A team as good as the Gamecocks should be forcing more live-ball errors than that. Had Utah not committed almost as many offensive fouls as South Carolina did, the turnover margin would have swung toward the red and white in a big way.. . South Carolina Gamecocks. WHERE ARE THE STEALS?

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