{"id":62942,"date":"2024-02-02T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T13:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=62942"},"modified":"2024-02-01T21:00:23","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T02:00:23","slug":"can-south-carolina-win-the-sec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/02\/02\/can-south-carolina-win-the-sec\/","title":{"rendered":"South Carolina Could Win the SEC"},"content":{"rendered":"

On January 9th, South Carolina suffered a 27-point defeat to Alabama to drop to 1-1 in conference play. In the post-game, head coach Lamont Paris sighted mental issues for the team’s performance, nothing more. Since then the Gamecocks have gone 5-1, with a home win over Kentucky and a road win at Tennessee<\/a>. With two of the best wins in the conference, and currently sitting at second in the SEC, this looks to be the best South Carolina team since a 2017 Final Four appearance.<\/p>\n

Can South Carolina Win the SEC?<\/h2>\n

Picked dead last in the SEC preseason poll, many thought Lamont Paris’ team was in for a rough season. At the start of February, he was by far the leading candidate for SEC Coach of the Year. After a hot start, many wondered how South Carolina’s 12-1 record would translate to SEC play. They did not skip a beat.<\/p>\n

What I most attribute to South Carolina’s hot start is their physicality and defense. The offense has been less than stellar. In conference play out of 14 SEC teams, the Gamecocks rank last in tempo and 12th in turnover percentage. It’s not all bad, however. The good news for the offense is their three-point shooting. They rank sixth in three-point percentage, and second in percent of points that come from threes.<\/p>\n

Defensively, the Gamecocks rank third in the SEC in defensive efficiency in conference play. They have allowed the second-lowest three-point percentage and the fourth-lowest two-point percentage. While they rank dead last in both steal and block percentage, they are getting stops at an elite level.\u00a0 South Carolina is also winning on the glass. They rank fifth in offensive rebound percentage, as well as fourth in defensive rebound percentage.<\/p>\n

While there is no All-American caliber player on this team, Meechie Johnson<\/a> and BJ Mack<\/a> are both used over 24 percent of possessions, which Kenpom describes as, “Major Contributors”. Johnson is the team’s leading scorer, and overall best player. Ta’Lon Cooper<\/a> is also third in the SEC in assists per game.<\/p>\n

South Carolina Gamecocks Remaining Schedule<\/h3>\n

The remaining schedule is pretty forgiving given how deep the SEC is. They have a game at Auburn and a home rematch against Tennessee. Outside of that, they only have two remaining games, Florida and at Mississippi State, against the top 35 Kenpom teams. They don’t see Alabama or Kentucky again for the rest of the regular season.<\/p>\n

If I were a South Carolina fan, what would make me most confident is how similar this team is to Lamont Paris’ last year at Chattanooga. On their way to an NCAA tournament bid, Paris’ team was first in defensive efficiency in conference play. They were top five in both offensive and defensive rebounding percentages. They had two guys who were used at least 24 percent of their possessions.<\/p>\n

This is Lamont Paris’ winning formula. He’s won like this before, and he’s doing it now. There is no doubt in my mind South Carolina is a legit SEC contender that can very well win the conference and overshoot where I projected them<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On January 9th, South Carolina suffered a 27-point defeat to Alabama to drop to 1-1 in conference play. In the post-game, head coach Lamont Paris sighted mental issues for the team’s performance, nothing more. Since then the Gamecocks have gone 5-1, with a home win over Kentucky and a road win at Tennessee. With two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4981,"featured_media":62978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[773],"tags":[778],"class_list":["post-62942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","tag-south-carolina-gamecocks"],"modified_by":"Zach Kircher","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4981"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}