South Carolina Basketball: 3 thumbs up, 3 thumbs down from Gamecocks' win over Florida

South Carolina Basketball vs. Florida Gators
Thumbs Down 1: BJ Mack

BJ Mack had his worst game as a Gamecock on Saturday. The starting big man scored just 2 points and had 0 rebounds in 20 minutes. He was beaten to the basketball repeatedly on rebound attempts, he gave up multiple easy buckets on defense, and his effort and body language were not what the Coach Paris wanted to see.

Mack has been too good this season to expect that this will continue. The Gamecocks will need him to bounce back to have a chance to beat the Tennessee Volunteers on Wednesday.

South Carolina Basketball vs. Florida Gators
Thumbs Down 2: 1st Half Rebounding

The Gamecocks were down by 6 at halftime, and that deficit was a direct product of bad rebounding. USC only had 15 boards compared to Florida's 23, and the 8 offensive rebounds resulted in 6 2nd-chance points.

No Gamecock other Collin Murray-Boyles had more than 1 rebound in the opening 20 minutes, and BJ Mack had 0. Florida, in contrast, had 7 players pull down multiple boards.

Had it not been for the tremendous 2nd half effort on the glass, the story from the game might have been the Gators' dominating the rebounding battle on their way to a win.

South Carolina Basketball vs. Florida Gators
Thumbs Down: At-Rim Finishing (Or Not Finishing)

The Gamecocks only got one dunk against Florida (a big one from Collin Murray-Boyles), but they attempted 18 layups in the contest. That's a pretty good number, especially when one considers there were plenty more instances in which they got into the lane before earning free throws after getting fouled.

However, Carolina made just 8 of those 18 shots at the rim. 4 of them were blocked, and 6 more were missed against clean defense. The Gamecocks will have to do better on their point-blank range shot attempts moving forward.