SEC Basketball Notebook: South Carolina winning but struggling to score
The narrative surrounding South Carolina for much of the season is the Gamecocks are muddling through a Final Four hangover.
Really, their struggles stem from not making enough shots.
The Gamecocks are shooting a league-worst 40.8 percent from the field this season, hampering an offense that is 12th in scoring at 71.2 points per game.
“That’s why we work on rebounding and defense,” South Carolina coach Frank Martin said after beating Kentucky.
Even during that important win, the Gamecocks struggled offensively, shooting just 37.7 percent from the field. Three days earlier, South Carolina beat Georgia, despite shooting 27.1 percent.
Those offensive woes shouldn’t come as a huge surprise considering the Gamecocks lost top scorer Sindarius Thornwell (21.4 ppg) as well as PJ Dozier (13.9 ppg) and Duane Notice (10.2 ppg) from last year’s team.
Without them, junior forward Chris Silva has been asked to provide more offense. Silva has heated up of late, with three games of at least 20 points over his last six after just one during his first 12.
“There’s a lot of unknown right now with our team,” Martin said. “I like our team. I got no problem with our guys. Our guys are great, they’re fun to coach. But we gotta grow up.”
Pearl on the money
Auburn became the last SEC team to lose a conference game this season Wednesday night when it fell 76-71 at Alabama.
Even before that, Tigers coach Bruce Pearl sounded a bit pessimistic about making it through SEC play against a conference that is stacked with competitive teams.
“We have 14 games left,” Pearl said after beating Mississippi State on Saturday. “We could win them all or we could lose them all.”
Losing on the road to Alabama was not a huge shock, but it was a bit surprising to see the Tigers have such trouble against a Crimson Tide backcourt that was without star freshman Collin Sexton, who was out with an abdominal injury.
Auburn never found an answer for freshman guard John Petty, who scored 27 points, including eight 3-pointers. Petty’s career high is 30 points, which came Nov. 17 against Alabama A&M.
“We all knew we needed to step up,” Petty said. “I came out and made a couple of threes, and I just felt great. So, coach started changing the offense and we started running a couple of plays, and I just happened to be open. It turned out to be a good night.”
Bracketology is back
ESPN’s favorite buzz word of the spring — bracketology — is making its way back after analyst Joe Lunardi released his newest projection Monday.
In his updated bracket, Lunardi has eight SEC teams in the NCAA Tournament, with Kentucky and Auburn drawing No. 4 seeds to lead the pack.
From there, Lunardi has Tennessee (5), Florida (7), Arkansas (7), Texas A&M (8), Missouri (10) and Alabama (11) in the field.
While much will change between now and March, it’s interesting to note the SEC had just five teams in the NCAA Tournament last season.
Living on a prayer
With his team already 0-5 in SEC play, it’s reasonable that Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy was ready to call on the Lord during Tuesday night’s game against Ole Miss.
Turns out that’s exactly what he did.
Kennedy said after the 71-69 victory he prayed that a last-second 3-pointer by Rebels guard Breein Tyree would rattle out after it. Thankfully for Kennedy, it did.
“God blessed us with the right bounce,” Kennedy said.
The Aggies still have a lot of work to do to get back in the SEC regular season race. Entering the weekend, they are four games back of the first-place Gators.
Etc.
UF forward Keith Stone was 13 of 18 from the foul line during a loss to Ole Miss on Saturday. The 18 free throw attempts were a single-game high for an SEC player this season. … Another single-game high: Sexton had nine turnovers during a win over LSU on Saturday. Three other players previously had the most in one game with seven. … Sexton and Georgia forward Yante Maten were named to the Wooden Award Midseason Top 25.
Phillip Heilman: (904) 359-4063