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March Madness: South Carolina’s survival guide to the SEC Tournament
By Keith Farner
Published:
Frank Martin’s team is looking at its final opportunity to improve its résumé ahead of the NCAA Tournament and Selection Sunday.
South Carolina enters the SEC Tournament in Tampa after its lost its chance at a top-4/double bye seeding position. Now they must win 4 games in 4 days to make the Big Dance, beginning Thursday night against Mississippi State (6 p.m., SEC Network).
The Gamecocks suffered a difficult loss at Alabama on Feb. 26. The Gamecocks knew they had to win out before the SEC Tournament and probably win 1 or 2 games there to really have a shot. That dropped the Gamecocks to .500 in the SEC and 17-11 overall. Now 18-12 after Saturday’s Auburn loss, the Gamecocks came into that game with a 91 NET ranking, it’s all but confirmed they need a run likely to the SEC Tournament championship to make the NCAA Tournament.
It’s been a season of streaks for the Gamecocks. They’ve had winning streaks of 4, 3, 3 and 4 games, and a pair of 3-game losing streaks.
“Last year’s team had no chance to win. We lost our fight in late January,” coach Frank Martin said. “This team’s got a lot of fight. Let’s not act like this is a team that doesn’t deserve to win. We’re .500 in the best league in the country. We’ve won 17 games. We’re right there.”
Here are 5 things they have to do to advance or potentially win the SEC Tournament:
Jermaine Couisnard continues strong play
Couisnard had a strong finish to the regular season. Before the Auburn finale, he had games of 17, 13, 22 and 33 points. Then he chipped in 22 against the SEC champion. Those 33 points were a career-high and came against LSU, as he became the first Gamecock since Laimonas Chatkevicius in March, 2016 to make 12 or more field goals in a game. And that LSU game came against arguably the best defense in the country, no small feat. If Couisnard can do it against a team like that, he can do it against the likes of the SEC heavyweights.
“I was just being aggressive, just keep on attacking, I know my coaches told me we can’t play passive, because they switch a lot,” he said on the SEC Network. “… I just kept on attacking the rim, that’s what got me going.”
Road momentum
The Gamecocks have won 4 true road games this season, all in league play. The last time the Gamecocks won that many road games in the SEC was the 2018-19 season, What’s more, the 2016-17 Final Four squad won 5 SEC games on the road, the most in the Frank Martin era. If there’s ever a team that has a road personality, it’s one coached by Martin. The Gamecocks need to take to Tampa the kind of play they used to deliver those wins and build momentum in order to take down one of the league heavyweights.
For now, the only SEC teams they’ve defeated are behind them in the league standings. LSU is the only SEC team with a loss to South Carolina that’s in the mix for March Madness. Martin understands from the Final Four team how 1 win can build momentum to lead to more.
Bryant-Couisnard combination
Finding complementary scoring has been a challenge this season, and the Gamecocks need someone to step up to bolster Couisnard’s output. When Keyshawn Bryant or Couisnard score 10 or more points, the Gamecocks are 16-3. The duo has scored in double figures in the same game 5 times (vs. Rider, vs. Georgia, at Texas A&M, vs. Kentucky and vs. Mississippi State, losing only against Kentucky).
Against Auburn, James Reese V scored 18 and Erik Stevenson added 13 points, which is the kind of double-figure scoring needed to make a splash in Tampa.
Ball movement
Take the Mississippi State game for example, and ball movement is key for the Gamecocks. Seven of USC’s 15 first-half field goals came on assists, and 7 different Gamecocks scored.
Devin Carter and Couisnard combined for 9 assists in that game. In all, 14 of USC’s 25 field goals came off assists. Martin shared after the game that he adjusted the team’s offensive approach after it struggled in the half-court offense. South Carolina came into the Auburn game averaging 14.1 assists per game, and had at least 14 assists in the recent wins over Mississippi State, LSU and Ole Miss.
Rebounding, turnovers
Even against the SEC champion, the Gamecocks outrebounded Auburn 40-39, however, it was SC’s 4th loss this season when they collect more rebounds than their opponents. In the past 10 games, South Carolina won the rebounding battle in 6 games, and it went 4-2 in those games. This is the bread of butter of Martin’s teams, but despite that foundational philosophy, the Gamecocks have averaged 35.6 rebounds per game in that 10-game stretch, compared with 36.5 rebounds for the opponents.
Against Auburn, the Gamecocks struggled to find clean play. They made 5 turnovers in the first 4 minutes, including a couple of errant passes. The Gamecocks took 6 minutes to make their first field goal and turned it over 16 times.
In the turnover department, the Gamecocks have only won the turnover battle 4 times in their last 10 games, so to overcome that, it’s a bit more impressive that their record is 5-5 in those games.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
