South Carolina basketball is letting everyone know why they should be ranked.
South Carolina basketball defeated Tennessee, 63-59, Tuesday night in a midweek battle in Knoxville. The Gamecocks improved to 18-3 overall, 6-2 in the SEC, while Tennessee’s home loss dropped them to a 15-5 overall record with a 5-2 conference record.
Following an early 7-0 South Carolina run, both teams settled into a true rock fight, with defense ruling amid a 30-26 first half in favor of the Gamecocks. The second half was almost a replay of the first, with an early back-and-forth sequence being immediately followed by a South Carolina mini-run. After a Jacobi Wright three-pointer made it a 46-40 game, the Gamecocks would hold on to the lead for the remainder of the game, despite Dalton Knecht doing everything possible to take the game back.
Ta’Lon Cooper’s dagger three with 41 seconds to go was the penultimate nail in the coffin, but after Dalton Knecht hit a contested triple with 31 seconds left, Myles Stute had to seal the game with two late free throws.
Just like the home upset over Kentucky, Cooper led the Gamecocks in points with 18 on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 from deep. Myles Stute scored 13 off the bench for the ‘Cocks in his first game truly healthy after a recent shoulder injury. On the Vols side, Knecht was once again the leader with 31 points, more than half of the Volunteers’ 59. Santiago Vescovi was the only other player for the fifth-ranked Vols in double-figures with 10 points. Though Meechie Johnson scored just three points, he tallied six rebounds and six assists for South Carolina. Josh Gray led the Gamecocks in rebounds with seven off the bench, while Tobe Awaka had eight rebounds and six points off the bench for Tennessee.
Takeaway #1: Lamont Paris is the Naismith College Coach of the Year
During an interview after the Missouri win on Saturday, Lamont Paris was asked about the possibility of the Gamecocks being ranked in the upcoming AP poll. His answer: “If they like us, they like us. If they don’t, they’ll pay the price.” At this point, go get the cashier. It’s time for a price check. Following a rough debut year in which the ‘Cocks went 11-21 and lost to this Tennessee team twice by margins of 85-42 and 85-45, Paris has cooked up a dream season for South Carolina in which they matched last season’s win total before Christmas.
His main additions from the transfer portal, B.J. Mack, Cooper, and Stute combined for 47 of the team’s 63 points against the Vols on Tuesday night, and are just part of the well-oiled machine that is South Carolina basketball. Paris has performed a complete 180 of the program in just months, and it’s showing in both the results column and the culture column. Columbia has bought into what Paris is building, and he’s way ahead of schedule. Look out for this team once March rolls around, and maybe listen to what Coach Paris has to say.
Takeaway #2: Tennessee’s offense needs to be consistently multi-dimensional
The Volunteers have the presumptive SEC Player of the Year in Dalton Knecht, who’s been fantastic this year and came into Tuesday night’s game averaging 28.0 PPG through six SEC games. But if this loss has told us anything about Tennessee’s ceiling on offense, it’s that the Vols are going to need someone else besides the NoCo transfer to step up on offense consistently, whether that’s Zakai Zeigler, Vescovi, Jordan Gainey, or anyone else.
Knecht led the way with 31 points. The rest of the team managed just 28 points across 40 minutes. Whoever the second option is going to be, they simply need to step up. Tennessee, at its best, is a championship contender. Their defense is more than championship caliber. But for them to reach their ceiling, they’ll need to have more offensive balance. The odds that Dalton Knecht can simply Kemba Walker this team to a title are a tad low. Yes, he’s a lock for a lottery pick and, I think, an immediate starter for an NBA team, but he can’t do everything for this offense, and that showed Tuesday night.
Takeaway #3: South Carolina is a top-15 team
Despite entering the season picked last in the SEC, South Carolina basketball now sits at 18-3 overall and 6-2 in the conference. They’re also unranked, somehow. The reasoning behind the “somehow” is pretty obvious: the dead-low expectations the national media had for this team to start the year. If the Gamecocks were in the Big East, they’d be ranked in the top ten. But they’re not, and honestly, a team’s AP poll position isn’t a battle worth fighting, it’s really meaningless.
But for the sake of argument, it’s clear that this team is a top-15 team at this point. There are not 13 other teams that can go and win in Knoxville like the Gamecocks just did. In fact, it’s hard to even come up with ten teams that fit that criteria. This is an elite defense, make no mistake, with a great half-court offense. Think Houston Jr., or, per Lamont Paris’s roots, Wisconsin. This veteran-laden SEC team is one that no other program will want to face in March, and it has been time to rank the Gamecocks.
Next up for South Carolina: at Georgia (Feb. 3 – 1 p.m.)
Next up for Tennessee: at Kentucky (Feb. 3 – 8:30 p.m.)