South Carolina MBB blown out by No. 17 Arkansas. What we learned
South Carolina needed a pick-me-up. It wasn’t going to be easy.
The Gamecocks, recovering from a 75-70 loss to Georgia where USC went 1-for-9 shooting to close the game, had an opportunity against No. 17 Arkansas to pick up a big road win Wednesday night. Not easy, but not impossible.
That Georgia loss might certainly be behind USC (10-7, 1-3 SEC) after it looked even further out of sorts in a 108-74 loss to the Razorbacks (13-4, 3-1 SEC). USC allowed the most points to any opponent this season against Arkansas, and the most since Lamont Paris took over as the Gamecocks’ head coach.
“I think there was a bit of shell shock in there, I do. I think we got shell shocked by it,” Paris told Gamecock Sports Network’s Derek Scott. “Guys got into a headspace that it was hard for them to compete like they needed to once they did the math on any sort of run. ... I just didn’t think we fought the way we needed to.’’
Here are three takeaways from the game played at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Arkansas:
Overwhelmed
In a multitude of ways, USC seemed overwhelmed physically by Arkansas.
It started with size. The Gamecocks roster two players taller than 6-foot-9, and those are seven-footers Jordan Butler and Christ Essandoko. Butler missed the game with an illness. The Razorbacks feature five players 6-foot-10 or taller, including former Gamecock forward Nick Pringle.
Pringle, who averaged 9.5 points as a Gamecock and currently sits at 4.8 points per game, put up 15 against his former team. The Razorback bigs combined for 36 points and 16 rebounds, finishing on top of the total rebound (36-33) and second-chance point (14-12) battles. Arkansas coach John Calipari was able to use his bigs to attack with ball screens, which has been a defensive weakness for Paris’ squad all season.
It didn’t end with size. Arkansas is equipped to get out and run, and it did so in full force against USC. The Razorbacks forced 10 first-half turnovers, scored 15 points in transition and spent the half adding clips to their season dunk reel.
USC finished the game with 16 turnovers, well above its 9.8 season average. Arkansas scored 32 fast-break points and 22 points off of turnovers.
Cold stretches
USC’s 46.9% field goal percentage wasn’t its worst shooting split in a game this season , but the Gamecocks lagged behind offensively in part due to a handful of cold stretches.
The Gamecocks had six stretches of three straight misses or more in the game. While the overall shooting numbers weren’t particularly low at the end of the game, USC simply didn’t find enough consistency to sustain over a long stretch.
Meechie Johnson gets hot
If there was any positive to take from the loss, it's that redshirt senior guard Meechie Johnson, USC’s leading scorer, had one of his better offensive outputs this season.
Johnson scored 29 points against the Razorbacks, including 17 first-half points. It’s been an up-and-down season as a scorer for the second-time Gamecock, who’s averaging a career-high 4.0 assists per game in exchange. He has as many games below five points as he does games above 20 points.
The inflated scoring performance, even in a loss, could be a needed confidence booster for Johnson, who led the Gamecocks in scoring for the first time in four games. Only one other USC player, junior forward Elijah Strong, eclipsed 10 points Wednesday.
“It’ll matter if this result mattered to guys. Not that it devastates you. Does it matter that we let it happen?” Paris said. “I know it will for me and my staff. I hope it does for the majority of our guys.”
South Carolina men’s basketball upcoming schedule
- Saturday: at Auburn, 6 p.m. (SEC Network)
- Tuesday: vs. Oklahoma, 7 p.m. (SEC Network)
- Jan. 24: at Texas A&M, 3:30 p.m. (SEC Network)
- Jan. 28: vs. No. 19 Florida, 9 p.m. (SEC Network)
This story was originally published January 14, 2026 at 10:57 PM.