Contrary to popular belief, Frank MartinSouth Carolina teams like to transition and score quickly. Gamecocks have been good at fastbreak opportunities this season, but that part of the stats sheet has been almost empty in this current streak of three straight losses.
After defeating Florida’s Top 25 on the road on February 3, South Carolina averaged 14.5 points per game in fastbreak chances, aided by an average of 15.6 points per game in an average of 16 , 1 opponent losses, the SEC’s fourth best metric. In the home losses to the State of Mississippi, No. 11 Alabama and Ole Miss in the last week and a half, the Gamecocks averaged just 6.3 points per game in the fastbreak, a total of 19 points.
Opponents’ turnover has not decreased. In fact, they are as tall as they have been all season. Mississippi State had 21 turnovers, Alabama had 22 (high season for an opponent of the Gamecocks conference) and Ole Miss had 20. The Gamecocks entered Saturday’s competition against the Rebels, forcing an average of 16.9 opponent turnovers per game, which was a SEC best and 14th nationally.
Already aware of the lack of production after his opponent’s mistakes, Martin was looking for an answer to why a playing area on his team that has been so good has been so bad lately.
“As coaches, our job is to put players in a position to be aggressive and make plays,” said Martin after Saturday’s 81-74 defeat. “In the last two games, we forced 44 turns and converted them to 13 points (in the fastbreak). How you take those turns and only score like that on a team like ours, which has a heavy guard, is stunning for me. Today we had 21 points on turnovers (but six on fastbreak). I would venture to say that most of those 21 points were free throws. I don’t remember that we fired a lot. “
When the fastbreak statistics column displays a single digit in the box’s final score, Gamecocks are 0-4 this season.
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Junior guard AJ Lawson, South Carolina’s best scorer after the game, which was coming out of its eighth game by more than 20 points of the season, said the answer is simple. Players are not finishing when they have the opportunity to do so.
“It sucks, because we like to be in open court and run,” said Lawson. “If we do that, it adds more points and gives us more confidence and we can move on. Now we are not finishing the turns. I feel that this is holding us back and we have to overcome this obstacle. We have to be confident to go there and finish. I feel like we’re not done. Even if they return, we need more effort to reach the cup and have a second chance to score.
Lawson pointing to offensive rebound points for another concern about this losing streak. Entering Saturday, Gamecocks led the SEC in offensive rebounds per game (14.1). In the last three defeats, Martin’s team has secured 37 offensive rebounds, but has only 30 points from them.
Except for the first warm half against LSU coming out of the team’s third period of paused activity due to COVID-19, Gamecocks’ midfield offense has been disabled for much of the past four weeks. With no production opportunities on the open court, out of turnovers for a team that is throwing only 65.1 percent (309 out of 340 D1 schools) on the free throw line, there is not much that Gamecocks can rely on to get the ball through of nylon consistently for 40 minutes.
The Gamecocks (5-9, 3-7) defeated a Top 25 team on their last time on the road, 11 days ago, which looks more like 111. Maybe a trip to face another top 25 team, No. 18 Tennessee, on Tuesday fair will help turn the tide on the offensive end of the hardwood. Tip against volunteers on Tuesday night at 8:30 pm on the SEC Network.