South Carolina hopes to continue its late push for NCAA Tournament consideration when it hosts struggling Missouri on Tuesday night in Columbia, S.C.
The Gamecocks (17-11, 8-8 Southeastern Conference) won four consecutive games before dropping a 90-71 decision at Alabama on Saturday. After facing the Tigers (10-19, 4-12), South Carolina will travel to No. 5 Auburn on March 5 before playing in the SEC Tournament in Tampa, Fla.
So the objective seems clear to South Carolina guard Erik Stevenson.
“Take care of business on Tuesday, go into Auburn and see what we can do there,” said Stevenson, who is tied with Jermaine Couisnard for the team scoring lead at 11.5 points per game.
“We’ll probably have to win two or three in Tampa. We’re just trying to find our way into the (NCAA) Tournament.”
Beating the reeling Tigers at home wouldn’t move the needle. Upsetting Auburn, however, obviously would be a huge boost.
“The only thing messing us up right now is metrics,” South Carolina coach Frank Martin said. “If you compare wins and losses, strength of schedule — all the stuff that matters. Quad 1 wins, Quad 2 wins, no Quad 4 losses, all that stuff that matters, our numbers are as good as any of the teams on the bubble; better, actually. No one pays attention to us because our NET is low.”
The Gamecocks have a home victory over LSU and Mississippi State and road victories over Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, Georgia and Ole Miss.
“We have some bad losses, but we’re in the SEC and have eight SEC wins, four SEC road wins,” Stevenson said. “I think the NET Ranking is not an accurate number. All the other numbers, we’re pretty high in those. I’m looking around the country and seeing these teams on the bubble, and they’re no better than us.”
The Tigers have lost five straight games and 10 of their last 12. Injuries have reduced their active roster to eight players, led by Kobe Brown (12.1 points, 7.9 rebounds per game) and Javon Pickett (10.6 ppg).
Poor point-guard play continues to haunt Missouri. The Tigers recorded 19 turnovers in their 75-55 loss at LSU, with Jarron Coleman turning the ball over seven times in 22 minutes.
“You can do a thousand ball-handling drills,” Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin said. “We can work on all kind of ball-handling drills. It’s being comfortable with handling pressure. It’s really that simple.”
LSU repeatedly trapped Coleman after he picked up his dribble.
“I thought Coleman has to do a better job of handling the pressure, just getting over the top, making plays,” Martin said. “I thought looks were there. … I thought he held on to some of those too long.”
–Field Level Media