South Carolina Basketball: 3 thumbs up, 3 thumbs down from the Gamecocks' SEC Tournament win over Arkansas

South Carolina Basketball vs. Arkansas Razorbacks
Thumbs Down 1: 1-on-1 Post Defense

South Carolina did a great job of keeping Arkansas out of the lane on Thursday afternoon, and it was a big reason for their overall dominance of the painted area in the stat book. However, when Arkansas attacked 1-on-1 down low, they had success.

Athletic forwards Makhi Mitchell and Jalen Graham posed some problems for the Gamecock frontcourt when give opportunities for low post touches. BJ Mack, Collin Murray-Boyles, and Myles Stute all had simple post moves beat them at least twice in the game.

Again, Carolina did really well to keep the Hogs out of the paint, and with how the box score ended up, no one should be upset with the overall paint matchup. However, the 1-on-1s down low may be something to watch moving forward.

South Carolina Basketball vs. Arkansas Razorbacks
Thumbs Down 2: Backup Guards

The Arkansas game was not a banner showing for the backup guards in garnet and black.

Jacobi Wright scored 0 points on 0-5 shooting and got beat on a couple of simple backcuts. Morris Ugusuk couldn't hold onto the basketball, accounting for 3 of the team's 8 turnovers on the day.

Moving ahead in the SEC Tournament (and beyond into the NCAA Tournament) will require more than a combined 0 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 turnovers in 27 minutes from those two players. Ta'Lon Cooper and Meechie Johnson cannot play every minute, and Lamont Paris has seen good production from Wright and Ugusuk before (especially Wright). The team needs them to step up sooner rather than later.

South Carolina Basketball vs. Arkansas Razorbacks
Thumbs Down 3: Outside Shooting

The Gamecock game plan on offense typically involves shooting a bunch of 3-pointers. In order for that to be effective, Carolina has to make a decent percentage of those shots. 20% is not good enough.

Yet, 20% is what they made on Thursday. BJ Mack went 2-4, but the rest of team was just 1-11 from the perimeter despite getting a bunch of open looks. That must improve.

At the beginning of the game, South Carolina's defense was not closing out well to the arc, either. They gave up 3 3-point makes for 9 of Arkansas' first 20 points, and it was no coincidence that the Gamecocks trailed at that point.

The defense locked down after that and was much better defending the perimeter, but a slow start like that on defense against Auburn could prove to be too much to overcome.