Here’s to you, South Carolina. How's life been in the lion's den?
Each week, the rankings come out with the same story in men’s college basketball. The polls. The NET ratings. KenPom numbers. Statistical leaders. They all chant the same mantra.
SEC! SEC! SEC!
There are 10 SEC teams in the latest Associated Press poll, including seven in the top 14. Of the 16 teams in the league, 14 have been ranked at one point this season.
There are 13 SEC teams in the top 47 of the current NET ratings, including four in the top seven.
RANKINGS: AP Top 25 Poll | NET rankings
The most efficient offense in the nation in the KenPom ratings is Auburn. Florida is No. 2, Alabama at No. 3 and Kentucky at No. 4. Then the rest of the country. The most efficient defense is a league member, too — Tennessee. Five more are in the top 20. In KenPom’s overall team rankings, all 16 SEC teams are in the top 78.
In krikya18.com's Andy Katz's most current projected NCAA tournament bracket, 13 SEC teams are in the bracket. I repeat, 13. That would be the most for any league in college basketball history — and 19% of the field.
Using the NET, Auburn has 11 quad-1 victories. No other team in the nation has more than eight. The Tigers were the unanimous No. 1 this week in the AP poll and have been at the top for three weeks. Before them, it was Tennessee.
Alabama has the highest-scoring offense in the land. Kentucky is No. 3, and Tennessee is behind only Houston in field goal percentage defense and is No. 1 in defending the 3-point shot. No team in America makes more free throws per game than Missouri, or gets more offensive rebounds than Texas A&M. Every team in the league seems to do something really well.
Vanderbilt leads the world in fines paid for court storming, having shelled out $750,000 total after the Commodores took down No. 6 Tennessee and No. 9 Kentucky. Is there any money left in the bank for more? Auburn will be in Nashville on Feb. 11.
Look at all those powerhouses, all that talent, all that tonnage of accomplishment. You have to go down to 11th place to find an unranked team — Texas, purring along at 11-2 before the conference meatgrinder was flipped on and now 14-6. Auburn might be No. 1 by all accounts, but four of its past five SEC wins have been by a combined 12 points. The other teams in the conference are like sharks, slowly circling the Tigers, waiting to be the one to bring them down.
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Which begs the question: If the SEC is so full of heavyweights, how hard must it be at the bottom?
That's why the South Carolina Gamecocks deserve a break one of these nights. They're 0-7 in league play for the first time in school history; only 12 other teams in the country are still winless in league play. But South Carolina is nobody’s doormat.
The Gamecocks had Auburn cornered, then went the final 5:18 without a point and lost by three.
They had Vandy on the ropes, but were beaten by a 3-point play with 0.6 seconds left.
They were up 14 points on Florida, but skidded into a turnover swamp and lost by one, doomed by a Gator basket with 4.8 seconds left. Those were the only 4.8 seconds Florida led all night.
They came back from being down 14 points in the last seven minutes to take Mississippi State into overtime, but then missed five of six shots and lost by five.
They might be in the cellar, but they’re the 'close-gamecocks.' An error here, a goof there, a slip somewhere else, and there is no joy at the end. South Carolina held Auburn and Florida to 18 and 15 points below their averages, respectively. True, there has also been the occasional mashing, such as 35 points at Mississippi State and 20 at home to Alabama. The Gamecocks are in the wrong league to have a bad night.
Katz's Weekly Word: Vanderbilt climbs into the top 15 in latest Power 37
So a 10-3 record that included a win over Clemson — currently second in ACC standings — is now 10-10 with seven consecutive losses. What is to become of them in this pool of barracudas?
“Well, if it doesn’t break you, it’ll make you stronger,” coach Lamont Paris said after the Mississippi State loss. “And it hasn’t broken our guys.”
His roster has eight South Carolina natives. One of them, forward Collin Murray-Boyles, leads the team in scoring (15.1) and has the best shooting percentage (58.8) and the second-highest rebound average (9.1) in the SEC. He put up 25 points against Auburn. Another, forward Nick Pringle, is second in the nation on the KenPom list of free throw rate. This mostly home-grown bunch has often been no easy victim, but victim they have been — seven times in a row.
“We’ve had a stretch of games that have been against super high-quality teams,” Paris said. “Really close, down to the wire, nitty-gritty-type scenarios and all have not gone our way and in a lot of different ways that they have. So I told the team after the game that I felt bad. I felt bad for ’em but I was happy with how we competed and how we fought, and I do believe our day is coming.”
Maybe Tuesday night at Georgia will break the losing streak. South Carolina has beaten the Bulldogs in 14 of their past 16 meetings. And if not? The next four games are against ranked teams. The way it is in the SEC, which is like a wave sweeping through the regular season. Time must tell if it will sweep through March, when Duke and Houston get in the way.
Meanwhile as one of the members of this brutal order, South Carolina just wants to win a game.
