How South Carolina’s defensive changes are creating chaos on the court
For South Carolina, there was only one objective — cause chaos.
Use its length, force a bad pass, make the opponent second guess themselves. Find a way to create something out of nothing.
In most games, coach Lamont Paris doesn’t like to start out with a zone defense. It’s easier to use matchups to the Gamecocks’ advantage. If South Carolina men’s basketball can take the game’s momentum with man-to-man coverage, why not just use that?
But when there’s a team, like Arkansas, that was able to float through the Gamecocks’ coverage, Paris switched to a zone defense.
A 1-3-1.
“When certain people go on, I know we’re about to go,” forward Josh Gray said. “It’s like, ‘everybody, all hands on deck.’ I’m just like, like a choreographer just in the background, just pointing out who’s who’s running behind people and stuff like that, just orchestrating the defense’s feels really good.”
It’s a zone defense used to spread out the five players on the court and force the ball into traps, making it easier for a defender to force a turnover. It’s one of the hardest coverages to shoot against, particularly in the paint.
It’s also how the Gamecocks turned a three-minute scoring drought into a 18-2 run toward the end of the first half and into the second. The zone cemented an 80-66 win over the Razorbacks in the second round of the SEC Tournament.
“Our main thing is defense,” Ta’Lon Cooper said. “We’re a defense-minded team. Coach came in and told us we need to get stops. The more stops we get, we just deflate them. Our offense going to work for itself if we play defense.”
Most of the Gamecocks had experience playing a version of the 1-3-1 zone prior to this season. The concept doesn’t change depending on the coach. Instead, its success is based on chaos and disruptions.
“We’ve got Collin (Murray-Boyles) in the middle who’s just disrupting every drive. We’ve got Zach (Davis) who’s also long, six-foot-eight up top, disrupting every single pass,” Gray said. “And then once they get past either, they funnel them into me, which is a challenge within itself.”
The Gamecocks play like they embrace the scheme. The energy they exude off the court is evident every time they force a turnover, shot clock violation or block. They know how beneficial the 1-3-1 has been this year — a not so secret weapon.
It’s an active defense, with USC’s players constantly moving and anticipating every step.
“It’s really effective when we use it,” Jacobi Wright said. “We try not to use it as a crutch, but when we need it we try to switch up our defense on our team and slow them down.”
Paris has preached the defense-first mindset from the beginning of the year. He’s a creative coach who’s unafraid to deploy unique tactics to achieve results.
Against Arkansas, it wasn’t a do-or-die moment against Arkansas when Paris went to the 1-3-1, but USC not only disrupted Arkansas’ offense, but it increased its shooting percentage from 48% to 58%.
Just a little bit was enough, and it caused some chaos.
“It causes a lot of disruption,” Meechie Johnson said. “But we do it pretty well.”
