South Carolina's season ended Wednesday with a close 72-68 loss to Arkansas in the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament opening round in Nashville, T.N. The Gamecocks (12-20) entered the postseason tournament as the No. 16 seed after finishing last in the conference with a 2-16 record. The loss made them the first team eliminated from the tournament.
Despite being the first team out, Arkansas head coach John Calipari voiced his opinion about the South Carolina squad.
“South Carolina, in a different league, they’re good,” Calipari said. “They’ve got big guys. They’ve got guards. This league is unforgiving.”
South Carolina's Lamont Paris responded to the comments from Calipari, questioning the idea that his team would fare better in a weaker conference.
“What does that even mean? We’re in this league,” Paris said. “(The SEC) is the best league. This is the best league in the history of college basketball, they are saying, by any metric that you would like to choose. Including your eyeballs.”
“There’s not some other world where we need to play in another league in order to win games,” Paris continued. “There’s another world we play in this league where we play and things go our way.”
This matchup was one of many close games for the Gamecocks this season. South Carolina finished 0-7 in conference games that were decided by five points or less.