South Carolina Basketball: 5 players Gamecocks don't want to see in SEC Tournament
By Kevin Miller
5 Players South Carolina Basketball Wants to Avoid in Nashville
Arkansas Razorbacks Guard Tramon Mark
Arkansas has not had a very good season, but the Razorbacks have enough talent to make a run in the SEC Tournament. South Carolina's position in the standings means that the Hogs could face off with the Gamecocks after coming off of a momentum-earning win or two.
That is not the type of Arkansas team Gamecock fans want to see.
Tramon Mark is the best offensive player for Coach Eric Musselman, and he is the type of scorer who can go nuclear at any time. Players like Mark can cause problems for the Gamecocks as Carolina is susceptible to runs due to their lack of forced turnovers and their mediocre offense. If a team gets hot shooting the basketball, they could go a run like Texas A&M did on Wednesday night (17-1).
When the Gamecocks and Razorbacks played back in January, Tramon Mark had 16 points in the 2nd half and was the primary reason why USC only won the final 20 minutes by 1 point in Bud Walton Arena.
If Mark gets going like that, and a few of his teammates have a pulse (no one else scored in double-figures in the last game), Arkansas becomes a tough out in the SEC Tournament, especially as they will need to win the whole thing to keep playing at the end of March. Khalif Battle has been on fire lately, and stopping them both has become a difficult ask of opposing defenses as evidenced by the guards scoring 154 combined points in their last 3 games.
Avoiding Tramon Mark (and even Khalif Battle) in the SEC Tournament would be nice for South Carolina basketball fans.