South Carolina basketball coach Lamont Paris has led his Gamecocks to the best turnaround in college basketball, and Wednesday's loss to Tennessee doesn't diminish that.
Carolina trailed by as many as 14 points in the 2nd half but rallied to cut the deficit to just 3 points. In the end, Tennessee was too good to beat in a game in which the Gamecocks played far from their best.
The 1st half saw USC play strong defense until a late run from the Vols. Unfortunately, poor shot selection doomed the offense early as the Gamecocks shot 4-17 from outside as they settled for long perimeter jumpers, sometimes early in the shot clock.
An 11-point halftime deficit came about thanks to a 11-2 run by the Vols to end the 1st half. Dalton Knecht got loose around some screens, and as Coach Paris put it in his postgame comments, the Gamecock defenders "didn't chase well enough."
After halftime, Tennessee stayed comfortably ahead for most of the final 20 minutes (ahead anywhere from 6 points to 14 points until the last 2 minutes). Meechie Johnson, Ta'Lon Cooper, and Collin Murray-Boyles scored 21 of South Carolina's final 25 points as they led a fierce comeback. The margin was pushed all the way down to just 3 points, but Tennessee held on for what was the clincher for the Volunteers to win the SEC regular season championship.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Tennessee Volunteers
Thumbs Up 1: No Quit
Frankly, the Gamecocks didn't play particularly well against Tennessee. However, because USC's style of play made Tennessee uncomfortable and because Caroline never quit, they were never out of it.
Despite being down by 14 in the 2nd half, Lamont Paris' team cut the lead to 3 points. Meechie Johnson, Ta'Lon Cooper, and Collin Murray-Boyles played especially hard during the late-game comeback. They scored 21 of the team's final 25 points.
The late-game rebounding was much better. Tennessee owned the glass for much of the game, but Carolina pulled down nearly every board down the stretch and won the rebounding battle for the game because of that.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Tennessee Volunteers
Thumbs Up 2: Post Defense
Other than BJ Mack, the Gamecock frontcourt defended the post at an elite level. Collin Murray-Boyles and Josh Gray were big-time obstacles at the rim. For the game, Tennessee shot just 2-10 on layups and made just 2-4 of their dunk attempts. Even wings Myles Stute and Zach Davis were involved down low at times, as well.
That type of post defense will be needed for the Gamecocks to win in March, and they've shown the capability of doing it. If Mack can play a little better on defense (especially against the pick and roll) to with Gray and Murray-Boyles, Carolina will be an outrageously difficult team to score against over the next several weeks.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Tennessee Volunteers
Thumbs Up 3: 2nd Chances
Lamont Paris' team fights hard on the offensive glass, and they did so again on Wednesday. While cleaning up 12 of their own misses, the Gamecocks tallied 15 2nd chance points for the game (and nearly had 17, but the refs waved off a dunk at the buzzer).
They did well defending against 2nd chance points, too. Tennessee only scored 3 points on 10 offensive rebounds.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Tennessee Volunteers
Thumbs Down 1: Shot Selection
South Carolina basketball plays slowly on offense, but they take efficient shots most of the time. Not on Wednesday.
The Gamecocks played a lot of 1-on-1 basketball in the 1st half against Tennessee, and they also shot a lot of quick, long 3-pointers. Meechie Johnson was the only guard providing the usual drive and kick looks, and the Gamecocks weren't converting on their outside looks. BJ Mack and Collin Murray-Boyles played iso ball in the post too often as the Gamecocks weren't cutting or setting good screens to create open looks.
The 2nd half was a little better, but the percentage of shots falling didn't really change.
The shot selection also caused problems for the team by limiting their free throw attempts. Until Meechie Johnson intentionally drove into traffic to draw fouls and get his team into the bonus, Carolina had shot just twice from the line.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Tennessee Volunteers
Thumbs Down 2: Giving Up but Not Getting Cheap Points
The Gamecocks didn't get to the free throw line much at all against the Vols. After shooting 0 foul shots in the 1st half, USC finished the game with 10 free throw attempts. Those foul shots only came when Meechie Johnson got uber-aggressive and the whistle flipped from favoring Tennessee to favoring South Carolina.
They also gave up some really bad free throws to Tennessee. A fouled 3-point shooter, multiple fouls 30 feet from the basket, and late-clock bail-out fouls gave the Volunteers free points that they didn't earn. The 22 total free throws allowed wasn't a horrible number, but in a game in which the officials allowed a lot of contact, 22 foul shots was a lot.
Carolina allowed Tennessee to score 13 points in transition, which is a lot considering they scored just 66 for the game. In contrast, the Gamecocks had 5.
Out-of-bounds plays went in favor of USC in a major way the first time these two teams played, but the script flipped on Wednesday. Tennessee got several more free buckets off of baseline inbounds than South Carolina did.
South Carolina Basketball vs. Tennessee Volunteers
Thumbs Down 3: Substitutions/Rotations
The minutes distribution in this game wasn't ideal, especially in the 1st half. Some of this was Coach Paris' decision-making, but a lot of it was dictated by the players' performances.
Myles Stute, playing in a huge knee brace in his first game after an injury, played 21 minutes, including a number of them in which he was tasked with chasing around Dalton Knecht. Jacobi Wright had a tough night offensively and wasn't great defensively but had to play 29 minutes.
Zach Davis' struggles shooting (1-5) and difficulties working through the many screens Tennessee threw his way limited his minutes to just 18. It would have been best for the Gamecocks if he could have been on the floor more.
BJ Mack played an ineffective 25 minutes, and he was played off the floor defensively several times.