For the first time in a while, the South Carolina men’s basketball team will be riding a bit of momentum when it travels to face Arkansas Tuesday night.
That’s because following a two-week winless stretch, the Gamecocks (11-9, 2-6) finally breathed a sigh of relief Saturday after beating Georgia 67-50, thanks to tough defense and a balanced effort on offense. The Gamecocks held Georgia to just 22 percent shooting while junior power forward Laimonas Chatkevicius led South Carolina with 12 points.
South Carolina head coach Frank Martin was happy to see his guys’ hard work get rewarded with a hard-fought win.
“I am just real happy for our guys, they have worked their tails off and they deserve to figure out a way to get a win,” Martin said.
Now, Martin’s team will turn its attention to an Arkansas squad that’s coming off a tough 57-56 loss to Florida.
The Razorbacks (16-5, 5-3) have underachieved a bit thus far in conference play, but are still a very talented team and one that is expected to contend for an NCAA tournament bid.
The last time South Carolina and Arkansas met was in the 2014 SEC tournament, with the Razorbacks needing a win to keep its postseason hopes alive. But a 17-point performance by then-freshman small forward Sindarius Thornwell helped the Gamecocks upset Arkansas.
Coached by Mike Anderson, a disciple of legendary former Arkansas head coach Nolan Richardson, the Razorbacks deploy a full-court press defense that’s based on Richardson’s ‘40 Minutes of Hell’ scheme.
That pressure usually makes things very tough for opposing teams when facing Arkansas, especially on the road. But, SEC teams are surprisingly averaging 73.25 points per game against the Razorbacks this season.
In the win over Georgia, four different Gamecocks scored in double-digits. South Carolina, a team that’s gone long stretches without much success on offense this season, will need a similar balanced scoring attack against the Razorbacks.
Sophomore shooting guard Duane Notice scored 11 points against Georgia and he thinks that as long as South Carolina can stick to the fundamentals, things will work out on offense against Arkansas.
“I think that if we just take care of things we need to take care of on the offensive side, just be more careful, take care of the basketball, execute plays properly, I think our offense will take care of itself,” Notice said.
Still, Arkansas’ pressure has forced its opponents into committing turnovers on 22 percent of possessions, 38th nationally and Martin knows how tough it will be to handle the full-court press, especially away from home.
“They play for each other defensively,” Martin said. “With the aggression and trapping and help and rotating, it’s relentless. It’s like you’re fighting piranhas in the middle of a lake somewhere.”
Defensively, South Carolina has held strong for the most part, even through its rough start to conference play. The Gamecocks are giving up only 91 points per every 100 possessions, which is the 13th best mark in the nation.
Still, South Carolina will have to match up with an Arkansas group that averages 80.4 points per game. While Arkansas’ defense hasn’t been as reliable as it’s been in years past, the Razorbacks have won multiple high-scoring games thanks to its offense.
Sophomore power forward Bobby Portis leads Arkansas in points per game (17.7) and rebounding (8.5) while junior guard Michael Qualls 15.9 points on average, as well.
After Tuesday night’s game, the Gamecocks will continue their road trip and face Vanderbilt on Saturday, February 7.