Tennessee And South Carolina Face-off With Different Mindsets

With Tennessee and South Carolina both having polar opposite seasons, both teams should be treating the game completely differently

There's this weird thing in sports that most people understand but often forget: Never count out the "nothing to lose" team. On Wednesday night, we were all reminded of this as South Carolina, who is currently ranked 221st in KenPom, nearly knocked off Alabama, who is number 3. It would've been one of the biggest upsets in a high-major conference game in quite some time. Now, as the Gamecocks come to Tennessee as 20-point underdogs, it's important to consider what is possible.

The big news on the Tennessee side is that Rick Barnes announced Friday that he expects Josiah-Jordan James and Julian Phillips to play Saturday. He also added that he wasn't sure how much, which could be a game-time decision. Both James and Phillips practiced on Thursday. While Tennessee desperately needs those two guys back, it'll be interesting to see Jahmai Mashack's role. While not the player of James or Phillips, Mashack has been excellent for the Vols over the last couple of weeks, and it would be foolish to abandon him for the most part.

On the South Carolina side, the Gamecocks, before the Alabama game, had actually been playing well. Them playing the Tide tough wasn't just a fluke, as they had won two out of three coming into that game. G.G. Jackson, the Gamecocks' talented freshman, has been excellent the last two games scoring 20 and 19. Meechie Johnson and Jacobi Wright have also been scoring efficiently and have been the answer offensively in this nice stretch for South Carolina. Those three guys have to be Tennessee's focus.

Overall, Tennessee needs not just to get a win but use this game as a confidence builder. Losing four out of five can do some bad things to a locker room. This team has three regular-season games left and then the conference tournament. Use this to get re-focused and get your swagger back. This team has proved this season that they can beat and compete with anyone, and they can prove that they can get back to playing their best basketball with a strong end to the regular season.

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