Making sense of South Carolina basketball’s smothering defensive start to the season
When South Carolina allowed just 31 points to Maryland on Jan. 9, 1971, it wasn’t necessarily because of what the Gamecocks did defensively.
It was more about the Terrapins and their offensive approach.
“Stall-ball,” said Kevin Joyce.
“Maryland really didn’t play with us,” said Bob Carver.
Joyce and Carver played for USC then, a Frank McGuire-led team that won 23 games and an ACC title. Counted among its six losses was a frustrating night in College Park, Maryland, where the Terps, in an effort to limit touches for Carolina All-American John Roche and company, slowed the pace to a crawl. Final score: Maryland 31, South Carolina 30. In overtime.
References to such an evening in the pre-shot clock era surfaced Sunday after Frank Martin’s Gamecocks finished a suffocating performance against Wyoming. South Carolina held the Cowboys to 32 points, the program’s fewest allowed in 48 years.
Only this time Carolina won — by 34, making it, scoring-wise, the best defensive performance in a victory since USC’s 80-14 rout of the Florence All-Stars on Jan. 2, 1948.
Some things to consider before championing these Gamecocks as college basketball’s version of the 1985 Chicago Bears: Teams typically begin seasons slow on offense, Wyoming scored just 54 points in its previous game and the Cowboys were picked to finish next-to-last in the Mountain West Conference.
However, South Carolina has already accomplished something in 2019-20 that it failed to reach in Martin’s previous seven seasons as Gamecock coach. USC has mostly been sound defensively, but it had never held two opponents under 25 percent shooting in the same year until these past five days.
North Alabama shot 24.6 percent. Wyoming shot 23.1 percent. The Gamecocks (2-0) won both games by a combined score of 143-87. The Lions and Cowboys missed 76 of their 100 field goal attempts.
Only reigning national champion Virginia has a better field goal percentage defense than South Carolina (24.0). Chances for the Gamecocks to stay this smothering aren’t super high considering better competition is ahead on the schedule, but the chance for this side of the ball to rival that of the Duane Notice and Sindarius Thornwell-led unit that carried USC to the 2017 Final Four is real.
These Gamecocks are long at the guard spots, have developing rim protectors and aren’t lacking for options.
“We’ve got multiple guys that we can play out there,” Martin said Sunday. “And the biggest adjustment that these kids have to make when they get to us here is you can’t play to conserve energy. That’s a disservice to your team. You got to play to lay it on the line for your team. And we have enough bodies where when you sub Player A for Player B, there’s not a big drop-off.”
Martin has stuck with the same starting lineup in both games, opting for a Jair Bolden-A.J. Lawson backcourt (average size: 6-foot-4, 194 pounds) to then be replaced by T.J. Moss and Jermaine Couisnard (6-4, 203).
That group provided five of Carolina’s nine steals against Wyoming.
“I’m kind of liking T.J. Moss, Jermaine coming off the bench,” Martin said. “I’m still trying to figure all that out. I’m not in stone with how I want to handle things, but I’m kind of liking that because those two guys are ultra aggressive defensively.
“So A.J. and Jair start, and then you come in with those two guys and they’re even more aggressive defensively than A.J. and Jair.”
Martin saw defensive flaws in the 77-55 win over North Alabama, calling out failures to stay in front of dribblers and easily allowing penetration. That improved four days later.
“We obviously played a lot better defensively,” Martin said. “We also played a different team offensively. Where North Alabama just looked to space and drive you from four or five places, Wyoming depends on their structure to get guys shots. If we had been passive defensively, like we were the other day, they would have kind of put us on our heels a little bit and then it gets embarrassing sometimes when you play structured teams and you don’t defend properly.
“But I thought we were real good defensively.”
Wyoming dropped 73 points on South Carolina last season, handing the Gamecocks a head-scratching defeat that ultimately impacted their postseason candidacy. The Cowboys made 11 field goals in the second half of that game. Sunday, they had nine for the entire 40 minutes.
“I thought they came out with the right attitude,” said Wyoming coach Allen Edwards. “I don’t know if it was coming off the North Alabama game and North Alabama hanging around a little bit or us having the opportunity to get them at our place last year, but I look at this group and I say they’re more well-balanced. I get Lawson is pretty talented, but I think you have to respect the other pieces as well.
“My staff and I, we talked about that after the game. I thought this group was more complete. They play together more, too.”
And they won’t be at full strength for another month.
“Remember now,” Martin said, “(we’re) still minus Keyshawn Bryant. When you add another 6-6 athlete that has instincts to block shots and steal the ball, we got a chance to be real good defensively.”
Lowest opponent field goal percentage games of Frank Martin era
1. Michigan 19.2 (Nov. 23, 2016)
2. Georgia 20.2 (Jan. 31, 2015)
3. Longwood 22.8 (Nov. 9, 2013)
4. Wyoming 23.1 (Nov. 10, 2019)
5. North Alabama 24.6 (Nov. 6, 2019)
NEXT
Who: Cleveland State at South Carolina
When: 7 p.m. Friday
Where: Colonial Life Arena
TV: SEC Network-Plus via the WatchESPN app
