South Carolina Basketball: 6 thumbs up from a historic national championship win

South Carolina Basketball vs. Iowa Hawkeyes
Thumbs Up 4: Outside Shooting

Outside shooting, or the lack thereof, was a huge reason for South Carolina basketball's loss to Iowa in last year's Final Four. Combined with the foul trouble from the game (from some questionable officiating), the better team was unable to knock off the Hawkeyes. The loss ended the 2022-2023 South Carolina basketball team's journey toward a perfect season.

Perfection was attained this year, though, and outside shooting played a big role in the win.

Last year against Iowa, the Gamecocks only had two rotation players comfortable shooting outside (Zia Cooke and Brea Beal), and they combined to go 0-7 in that game. Raven Johnson wound up going 3-6, but she and the rest of the Gamecocks were left alone behind the arc as Lisa Bluder's team packed the paint to limit Aliyah Boston, Victaria Saxton, and Kamilla Cardoso as best they could. USC shot 4-20 from the arc and lost by 4.

Sunday's matchup was much different.

The Gamecocks shot over 40% from the arc in the game, and Te-Hina Paopao and Tessa Johnson both knocked down 3 shots from the perimeter. Even more than just making shots, the threat of the Gamecocks making shots was a huge plus for the offense.

Paopao and Johnson made more outside shots than the entire team did last year, and because of their gravity (and the improved gravity of Raven Johnson and the other Gamecock guards), the post players had some room to operate.

Kamilla Cardoso and Chloe Kitts combined to score 26 points on 12-22 shooting, a stark contrast to the 8 points on 2-11 showing from the Gamecocks starting bigs last season. The major difference? Cardoso and Kitts had space, Boston and Saxton did not as they were doubled every play. The Gamecock shooting improvement is a huge reason why that was the case.