South Carolina's Win Over Kentucky Is a Win For Paris's Process
Last Saturday, South Carolina endured one of their worst losses in program history, as they lost by 43 points en route to their worst defeat since joining the SEC and their worst loss in the Colonial Life Arena in fifteen years.
I think it's essential to acknowledge how often these losses have completely derailed a team's season. The Tennessee debacle could have caused utter chaos in the locker room, a breakdown in team morale, and set the stage for early roster defections.
The thrashing South Carolina suffered at the hands of the Volunteers gave the team two different options; send it in for the rest of the season or come back and, at a bare minimum, fight for their collective pride. Head coach Lamont Paris' squad chose the latter.
They walked into Rupp Arena on Tuesday night, a place that's been quite unkind to the Gamecocks, who only had two all-time wins in the building heading into the contest, and secured a shocking wire-to-wire upset win over Kentucky.
South Carolina set the tone offensively with an aggressive mindset in terms of how the game played out. Meechie Johnson saw the floor remarkably well and was an inside-outside scoring threat the Wildcats had to respect, which also opened the door for his teammates to get open looks.
Defensively, the Gamecocks couldn't shut down Kentucky big man Oscar Tshiebwe but managed to slow him down enough and force the Wildcats to find points from other areas of the floor, which at the end of the day wasn't sufficient from John Calipari's squad.
The biggest story coming out of this game should be what this performance signifies in terms of Lamont Paris' plan for this program, which he's stated multiple times would base on a growth-centric process. This was an unbelievable coaching job by a first-year staff going through their first season in the meat grinder that is the SEC with a roster they would likely admit is less than ideal for what they want to do holistically as a team.
There's no doubt that the Tennessee game probably won't be the last time the Gamecocks lose in blowout fashion, as they're going to play games where they'll be completely outmatched from an experience and roster standpoint. If that means that the team will continue to learn how to respond to such adversity in this fashion, I think it will make for a season that exceeds overall expectations.
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