South Carolina MBB falls late at Texas, loses fourth straight. What we learned

Roughly three years and 11 months ago, South Carolina couldn’t land Sean Miller as its men’s basketball coach.

Miller, the longtime Arizona coach at the time, was the Gamecocks’ reported top choice after firing Frank Martin five seasons removed from the USC men’s team’s only Final Four trip. Instead, Miller chose Xavier, and former USC Athletic Director Ray Tanner ultimately tabbed current head coach Lamont Paris as USC’s head man.

Lots has changed since then. Miller made two NCAA Tournaments in three seasons with Xavier before jumping to Texas this past offseason, joining Paris in the SEC. Paris hasn’t had it so easy, going 60-61 at USC, and is the middle of another year near the bottom of the SEC standings after an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2023-24.

Paris’ Gamecocks fell to Miller’s Musketeers last season. And South Carolina was defeated 84-75 on Tuesday by Miller’s Texas Longhorns.

“They have to win this game. If there’s going to be any blemishes that ever happen in this league, it’s a home game against one of the teams that has one of the bottom records in the league,” Paris told the Gamecock Sports Network’s Derek Scott and Casey Manning after the game. “I only mention that because clearly they’ve talked about that. They prepared as such, and they came out to play to win.”

The result marks four straight losses for USC (11-12, 2-8 SEC) and puts Paris’ USC record under .500.

Crunch time woes

The midweek SEC showdown came down to the closing minutes as the two teams traded the lead five times in the second half after two lead changes in the first. Neither team led by more than seven. USC trailed by just two points with 3:23 remaining.

Ultimately, Texas (14-9, 5-5 SEC) made the clutch plays — including timely 3s and 93.3% free-throw shooting in the second half — while USC whiffed layups seeking foul calls, multiple missed free throws and was outscored 12-6 off of turnovers in the second half alone.

Meechie Johnson, who’s averaged 18 points per game for USC since SEC play began, carried the Gamecocks on offense. He finished with 35 points on 12-for-21 shooting in 34 minutes. No other Gamecock scored more than 12 points in the game. Texas’ multi-stat leader Dailyn Swain also stepped up with 22 points and 10 rebounds.

“Meechie played really well, it would’ve been nice to have a couple other guys,” Paris said. “Still, you had a chance to win the game. I think it really came down to not that.”

Change of plans

At the start of the game, it seemed the Gamecocks were intent on changing things up on offense.

USC, which averages 26.5 3-point attempts per game, exclusively attacked the rim and finished the half with a season-low four attempted 3s.

At first, it worked perfectly: The Gamecocks started 7 for 11 from the floor, while the Longhorns limped out to a 1 for 10 start, including five missed 3-pointers. But as the Longhorns moved away from jump shots and adjusted on defense, Texas began to take control.

USC finished the half 11 for 25 from the floor, while Texas went on an 18-8 run for a 35-31 halftime lead — its largest lead of the game.

While the Gamecocks finished the half ahead 16-8 in paint points, the stat was skewed by the 13 USC fouls that gave Texas 15 points from the free-throw line.

“Some of the ball screen coverage was in a way where Meechie in particular got a head of steam,” Paris said. “They were in recovery mode, and that really helped him get downhill. We had a couple of guys that did too.”

EJ Walker goes from redshirt to starter

After tweaking its starting five a handful of times during the early season, USC settled on a lineup in its non-conference finale vs. Albany on Dec. 30 and hasn’t changed its starters since.

That changed Tuesday when Paris swapped Elijah Strong, his third-leading scorer, for a player that wasn’t supposed to play this season.

“We started him today just to shake things up,” Paris said. “Hopefully that’ll really get him going as far as his confidence goes ... the rapid growth that’s taken place for EJ over these last couple of months has been really exciting to see.”

EJ Walker, a three-star recruit out of Kentucky, was one of five Gamecock freshman to join the team and one of three players to begin the year with a redshirt, voluntarily sitting out the year while saving his season of eligibility.

Walker played 21 minutes against the Longhorns, recording eight points on 4-for-5 shooting and three rebounds. Strong finished with 12 points in 17 minutes off the bench.

After USC struggled to find consistency from its forwards, Paris, Walker and the freshman forward’s family decided to burn his redshirt. He made his first appearance of the season Dec. 6. Going into Tuesday’s game, Walker averaged 3.2 points and 2.3 rebounds in 12.9 minutes per game.

South Carolina men’s basketball upcoming schedule

• Saturday: vs. Missouri, 1 p.m. (SEC Network)
• Feb. 14: at Alabama, 8:30 p.m. (SEC Network)
• Feb. 17: at Florida, 7 p.m. (SEC Network)
• Feb. 21: vs. Mississippi State, 1 p.m. (SEC Network)

This story was originally published February 3, 2026 at 9:14 PM.