3 thumbs up, 3 thumbs down from South Carolina basketball's lopsided road win over Arkansas

South Carolina Basketball vs. Arkansas Razorbacks
Thumbs Up 1: BJ Mack's Bounce Back

BJ Mack has had an up-and-down experience in SEC play. He had a really nice game in the win over Missouri but wasn't good against Georgia. On Saturday, he bounced back from the poor showing against the Bulldogs with one of his best performances of the season, leading the Gamecocks in scoring and rebounding as they dominated Arkansas in both categories.

Mack scored an efficient 18 points, rebounded the ball 9 times, and dished out 3 assists in just 24 minutes. He was allowed to conserve energy on the bench some because of solid performances from bench post players like Josh Gray and Stephen Clark, and it seemed to pay dividends as he was able to play hard late in the game.

Perhaps most importantly, Mack shot 3-4 from behind the arc, marking the first game in over a month in which he made more than one shot from outside. He shot 14% from the perimeter during that stretch. If the Gamecocks get the good-shooting version of BJ Mack, their offense is good enough to compete for an NCAA Tournament bid.

South Carolina Basketball vs. Arkansas Razorbacks
Thumbs Up 2: Perimeter Defense

South Carolina basketball coach Lamont Paris has had his team performing at an elite level when defending the perimeter for most of this season, and that was true again on Saturday. Zach Davis, Ta'Lon Cooper, and Meechie Johnson made life miserable for the Arkansas guards, and other than a few very difficult makes from Tramon Marks, the Hogs had very little success when operating on the perimeter.

For the game, Arkansas made just 28% of their 3-point shots, and none of the seven players in the Razorbacks' rotation shot better than 50%. In fact, the Hogs' best offensive players shot just 14-41 for the entire game, and that included a hot stretch from Marks in which he made three shots in a row.

South Carolina Basketball vs. Arkansas Razorbacks
Thumbs Up 3: Balanced Productivity, Even from the Unexpected

BJ Mack might have been the player of the game, but he was not the only player who contributed to winning. Meechie Johnson was the only starter not to score in double figures (but he brought down 7 rebounds), and all four bench players had nice showings.

Josh Gray and Stephen Clark both had 4 rebounds and were physical presences down low. Jacobi Wright wasn't a big factor as a scorer but delivered 5 assists. Morris Ugusuk gave the Gamecocks a solid 9 minutes, scoring 5 points and running the offense in the few minutes Ta'Lon Cooper took a breather.

5 players had at least 8 points, 7 brought down at least 4 rebounds, and 6 had multiple assists.