Three takeaways after South Carolina MBB finishes its non-conference slate
South Carolina men’s basketball wrapped up its non-conference schedule on Tuesday, beating Albany 96-67 at Colonial Life Arena.
Meechie Johnson led the way with 15 points. Myles Stute drilled a trio of 3-pointers. And the Gamecocks scored the most points of any game this season.
“We’ve been working,” Johnson said. “This team has been doing two-a-days in the gym, putting a lot of extra work in to have a game like this.”
The Gamecocks now enter SEC play with a 9-4 record with losses to Butler, Northwestern, Virginia Tech and Clemson. They begin their conference slate with a home game on Saturday against No. 11 Vanderbilt.
Here are three takeaways after watching coach Lamont Paris’ team through 13 games.
1. The Gamecocks struggle in the paint
This is not a surprise. South Carolina came into the season with just two guys over 6-foot-9: Centers Jordan Butler and Christ Essandoko. So, naturally, it was expected that the Gamecocks’ lack of size could cause some major issues — but it’s worse than expected.
Coming into the Albany game, the Gamecocks were the worst rebounding team in the SEC, grabbing fewer than 36 boards a game while blocking the fewest shots in the conference (2.25 a game).
Heck, the Gamecocks got outrebounded, 30-27, by Albany on Tuesday night while giving up 17 offensive rebounds to the Great Danes.
It’s not only that South Carolina lacks big men, but the front court players it does have are struggling. Butler and Essandoko are averaging just 7 points a game and only one player, 6-9 guard Mike Sharavjamts, is averaging more than four rebounds a game.
All of this means that South Carolina has to be incredibly reliant on its guards ... which hasn’t been a sure thing.
2. The Gamecocks need to shoot the 3 better
Because of its lack of size, this South Carolina team is going to live and die by the 3-pointer. Problem is: The Gamecocks have been really inconsistent from deep.
For instance, on nights like Tuesday — against an outmanned l Albany squad — the Gamecocks were solid from downtown, hitting 14 of 30 triples (47%).
“I mean, we’re a great shooting team,” said freshman forward Hayden Assemian. “Our (free-throw) percentage is great. It’s why we’re top(-10) in the country. We get them up. We just have to get them going.”
But coming into its non-conference finale, South Carolina ranked second-to-last in the SEC in 3-point percentage (30%). The only Gamecock starter hitting over a third of their attempts from deep is Johnson (33%), yet — as Assemian mentioned, USC shoots well from the free-throw line. So what gives?
“You literally have no clue how much I have evaluated our shot quality this year,” Paris said. “We’ve done one-hour sessions in the morning (over the Christmas break) before we do our full practice and have spent time just getting shots up.
“But, you know,” Paris said later. “It remains to be seen if it was just a hot day or if some of those things are working.”
3. South Carolina has a tough path to the NCAA Tournament
This is a rough thing to write in December, but it would take a miraculous next few months for the Gamecocks to earn a bid to March Madness.
Before its win over Albany, USC was No. 90 in the KenPom rankings, which was by far the worst among all SEC teams. Missouri (No. 63) and Mississippi State (No. 79) were the two closest conference teams.
South Carolina might be the underdog in every game it plays the rest of the season, which can be a good and bad thing. On one hand, the Gamecocks will have plenty of chances to play themselves into the NCAA Tournament — as they did to close out the 2024 season. Or, like last season, they can get outmatched night in and night out.
If you want to be generous, South Carolina probably has to at least 18 victories to have a shot at making the NCAA Tournament — which begs the question: Can the Gamecocks go .500 (9-9) in the SEC? Paris doesn’t like to talk about the SEC slate in such big terms. He prefers a golf analogy.
“There are 18 holes,” Paris said. “You can bogey a hole, but you can’t let what you did on the last hole affect what you do on the next hole. You just can’t. Because, if you do, you’ll stand up on the next tee and you’ll hit the ball in the water.
“You at least have a clear mind and a plan of what you want to do on that single, independent hole,” he continued. “And then if you can put enough of those together, you’ll have a pretty good round.”
Upcoming South Carolina games
- Saturday: vs. Vanderbilt, 2 p.m. (ESPNU)
- Tuesday: at LSU, 7 p.m. (ESPNU)
- Jan. 10: vs. Georgia, 2 p.m. (ESPN2)
- Jan. 14: at Arkansas, 9 p.m. (SEC Network)
This story was originally published December 30, 2025 at 7:51 PM.
