South Carolina’s loss to Kentucky latest near-miss in increasingly frustrating season
Jermaine Couisnard whipped his body toward the South Carolina basket, tilted his head down to the floor and let out a sigh.
Behind Cousinard, Kentucky Davion Mintz’s right arm held its form as his wide-open 3-pointer splashed home and sent the smattering of royal blue at Colonial Life Arena into a tizzy.
It’s a familiar scene here on this night deep in the heart of the Gamecocks’ 2021-2022 season. One too many misses. One too many turnovers. One too many breakdowns.
“Making shots, missing shots — that determines who wins and loses,” South Carolina head coach Frank Martin said on the heels of USC’s 86-76 loss to No. 5 Kentucky (20-4, 9-2 SEC) on Tuesday. “If you don’t have an identity that you play with every time you take the court, that’s a problem. And we didn’t have that today.”
Full transparency, I walked into CLA with the expectation of a blowout. Call me daft. Call me cynical. That criticism may be fair. It doesn’t change Ken Pomeroy’s prognostication of a 12-point Kentucky win. Saturday’s drubbing at the hands of Tennessee inside these friendly confines didn’t exactly inspire hope either.
But what greeted the 12,009 onlookers tucked into the plastic seating Tuesday was a South Carolina team that looked inspired. It looked energetic. It looked, for a moment — albeit fleeting — like a Gamecocks squad that might conjure a pinch of that Wildcat-vanquishing magic that led USC (13-10, 4-7) to a win over Kentucky in this building in 2020.
Tuesday brought instances of the stingy defense and bouncy, quick-strike offense the Gamecocks have found in spells this season. But spells don’t win you games in the Southeastern Conference, certainly not against the league’s boogeyman in John Calipari’s Wildcats.
For every Couisnard transition 3-pointer or Keyshawn Bryant posterization, the Gamecocks backed it up by leaving a wide-open Kentucky jump-shooter or watching a miscommunication between Erik Stevenson and Jacobi Wright devolve into an errant pass.
The usual steadying hands in Stevenson and James Reese combined for a 6-of-24 effort from the floor. The Gamecocks finished a combined 5 of 20 from 3-point range. Stevenson’s sharp shooting-self accounted for four of those misses on five attempts.
It’s those miscues that washed out Wildens Leveque’s splashy evening against a squad his NBA-playing cousin Nerlens Noel once guided, or Bryant’s most productive night in almost three weeks.
“You’re the nail guy,” Bryant told Leveque — who Martin challenged pregame with a borderline “come to Jesus” conversation on Monday. “When the nail guy is drilling and going hard, the team follows.”
South Carolina has battled demons against the SEC’s upper-echelon of late. Early second half lulls have seen the Gamecocks run off the floor in games it started in a competitive place.
Tuesday, Bryant — in all his bouncy, athletic magnificence — muscled home a layup high off the glass off a flipped pass from Couisnard to knot the score at 43 four minutes into the second half. Kentucky promptly obliged the towel-waving crowd taunting their every step when TyTy Washington threw a pass behind Kellan Grady heading into the under-16 timeout.
It’s there that USC’s second half wall appeared. It happened against Tennessee. It happened against Arkansas. It happened again against Kentucky.
Wildcats all-world forward Oscar Tshiebwe quietly collected his 14th double-double of the season, despite Leveque’s best defensive efforts. Tshiebwe’s emphatic dunks and rigorous rebounding was lost for much of the first half. It later paced Kentucky toward the finish line as he notched 12 points and 12 boards in the second half alone.
“Oscar outran us three times down the floor for dunks,” a frustrated Martin said. “How does that happen?”
Perched at the table inside South Carolina’s media room postgame, Martin donned a somber tone in his 20-minute diagnosis of Tuesday’s imperfect outing.
He told stories of South Carolina teams past. He referenced advice from longtime confidant and West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins. He explained begrudgingly how point guard struggles have held this iteration of the Gamecocks back.
The sermon offered a glimpse into the psyche of a frustrated coach, guiding a frustrated team. But night’s like Tuesday also offer a semblance of proof the Gamecocks can compete with the SEC’s best on a given night.
South Carolina has had its moments this winter. The wins over Florida State and Texas A&M inspired momentary confidence. The core of newcomers led by Stevenson and Reese have made for a dynamic grouping in spurts alongside Couisnard and Bryant.
Yet, as has been the case all too often this season, the Gamecocks have rarely carried that momentum over a full 40 minutes, let alone a four-month campaign.
Tuesday marked the latest disheartening chapter in that increasingly dense book.
This story was originally published February 9, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
