South Carolina is perfect in true road games this season. But this next one ...
The doors opened to the visiting locker room at Littlejohn Coliseum and the celebration began. Garnet-clad players bounced around with grins glued to their faces.
Such a scene was posted to social media accounts for South Carolina men’s basketball following the Gamecocks’ 67-54 win over rival Clemson last Sunday.
Asked about it four days later, freshman guard Trae Hannibal couldn’t add much detail. He had already moved on.
“It was good, great spirits,” Hannibal said. “But now it’s just focusing on Virginia and doing the best we can to prepare.”
Hannibal spoke Thursday from a seat inside Carolina Coliseum, the practice facility that sits across from Colonial Life Arena. USC’s next game there isn’t until Dec. 30 against Stetson. This Sunday’s trek to Charlottesville to take on ninth-ranked Virginia (9-1) will be the Gamecocks’ third road trip in four games. They’re 2-0 so far, the last ending with a mini-dance party in the Upstate.
“It seems like we’re a great team on the road,” Hannibal said.
South Carolina (7-4 overall) hasn’t started a season 3-0 in true road games since 1996-97. Reaching that benchmark this year will be a tall task for a variety of reason.
Here’s what the Gamecocks are facing come 3 p.m. Sunday in John Paul Jones Arena: The reigning national champions, the county’s leader in scoring defense (by a full nine points!) and a setting that’s just plain not kind to opponents.
Virginia is 114-11 at home over the past eight seasons. It has a 22-game home win streak over non-conference foes, last losing this kind of contest on Dec. 3, 2016, to West Virginia.
South Carolina won at UMass on Dec. 4 in front of 3,043 at the Mullins Center in Amherst. An announced crowd of 6,394 was in Littlejohn for the Clemson win.
The fewest to attend a game at John Paul Jones Arena (capacity 14,593) this season has been 13,524 for UVa’s 65-34 dusting of James Madison on Nov. 10. It’s a venue that’s long fed off coach Tony Bennett’s signature style of play. In other words, the place routinely grows louder for forced shot clock violations than alley-oops.
“Great environment,” said USC coach Frank Martin.
But one the Gamecocks can conquer?
Martin’s confidence in this challenge stems from how his team showed in the second halves at UMass and Clemson. Against the Minutemen, the Gamecocks stretched the lead to 11 with 2:40 left. Against the Tigers, the Gamecocks led by as many as 10 for the final 4:13.
“Usually you go on the road and you come out like gangbusters,” Martin said, “and then as the game settles down and it gets deeper, the home team ends up being more comfortable and the road team tends to panic a little bit.
“But in both of those games, the second halves, we were good.”
Martin, in his eighth season with the Gamecocks, correctly pointed out Thursday that his USC teams have won at every SEC site, except for Rupp Arena (Kentucky) and Coleman Coliseum (Alabama).
“We don’t talk about a difference of winning on the road or winning at home,” Martin said. “It’s the opponent. We don’t talk about where we’re playing. I rarely talk about the difference between home and road games. It’s the opponent and it’s playing the 40 minutes. That’s what we try to focus in on.”
That approach has led to only winning results in 2019-20. So far, anyway.
“I really see (Virginia) as any other game,” Hannibal said.
Next
What: South Carolina (7-4) at No. 9 Virginia (9-1)
Where: John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Va.
When: 3 p.m. Sunday
TV: ABC
Radio: 107.5 The Game in Columbia area
