How USC men’s basketball team earned Arizona Tip-Off title win over Grand Canyon
Two thousand miles away and two games later, the South Carolina men’s basketball won its bracket in the Arizona Tip-Off.
Following up a late-night win over DePaul on Friday night (technically Saturday morning), the Gamecocks on Sunday took down Grand Canyon 75-68 to take the early-season title back to Columbia. USC won the Cactus Division of an event that carried a two-tournament format.
South Carolina is 5-0 for the first time since the 2016-17 season.
Here are a few key observations from the Gamecocks’ win.
BJ Mack’s biggest night yet
Mack has been a top performer for USC since Game 1. The Wofford College transfer forward has started every game and is averaging 16 points.
Against Grand Canyon, Mack doubled down. Topping guard Meechie Johnson’s 23 points against DePaul on Friday, Mack scored 27 points Sunday, going 4-for-7 with 3-pointers and 9-for-9 in free throws. He added three rebounds, had one steal and picked up two assists.
Mack’s physicality in the paint is a driving factor for his ability to score down low, but he’s also proven his long-range shooting capabilities. Scoring nearly half of South Carolina’s points, Mack’s 27 points led all scorers and was a season high. He’s on pace to surpass his season average from last season (16.6 points per game) by the start of SEC play in January.
Yet again, so many fouls
There were 50 fouls called during Friday’s game against DePaul. Sunday night followed it up with another 45, making it almost 100 fouls called during two basketball games.
Mack continued to dance around foul trouble, picking up four and playing through the final 10 minutes of the second half. Myles Stute received a Class A technical foul early in the game and played the entire second half with three personal fouls.
While USC has been navigating these new charge rules the NCAA established in the offseason, consistently putting its best players in scenarios with three or more personal fouls in the waning moments could create problems down the road.
Momentum to bring home
USC doesn’t have another game until after Thanksgiving. After picking up these two wins away from Columbia, in a tournament too, taking home a little bit of November hardware can be beneficial for the back half of the nonconference schedule.
The Gamecocks are having multiple players reach double digits every game. This week is was Mack and Stute. Every game, at least six players are scoring — on Sunday it was eight.
South Carolina is shooting over 50% from the field, and 43% from beyond the arc. There are specific game situations USC hasn’t capitalized on, like a few rollout 3s or quickly ending a scoring drought. It’s also still November.
The road is going to get harder here on out, but improvement is still improvement. And head coach Lamont Paris is showing a lot of improvement from this time last season.
Next four USC MBB games
Nov. 28 - vs. Notre Dame, 7 p.m. (SEC Network)
Dec. 1 - vs. George Washington, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
Dec. 6 - at Clemson, 8 p.m. (ACC Network)
Dec. 9 - at East Carolina, noon (ESPNU)
This story was originally published November 19, 2023 at 9:17 PM.
