South Carolina did the Tennessee Vols a big favor before the NCAA Tournament and the Gamecocks don't even realize it
The Tennessee Vols finished the 2024-25 regular season on Saturday with a 75-65 win against the South Carolina Gamecocks. South Carolina's had a tough year, finishing the regular season with a 12-19 record. Based on the final score of the game, it might appear that Tennessee struggled against the Gamecocks in a game that most […]
The Tennessee Vols finished the 2024-25 regular season on Saturday with a 75-65 win against the South Carolina Gamecocks.
South Carolina's had a tough year, finishing the regular season with a 12-19 record. Based on the final score of the game, it might appear that Tennessee struggled against the Gamecocks in a game that most folks expected to be a blowout.
But that wasn't the case at all. Despite South Carolina's ugly record, they're a group that plays hard under head coach Lamont Paris. And they certainly weren't going to mail it in against the Volunteers on Saturday.
After the game, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes explained to reporters that the game against South Carolina was very similar to an NCAA Tournament game — due to the Gamecocks' unique style of play.
"We showed our team a lot of clips about [South Carolina] all throughout the year and how hard they kept playing and getting better," said Barnes. "And they played really complementary basketball where they put you in long possessions on both offense and defense and make it a possession game. They've been so good inside in their wins. We really fought hard there.
"I thought by being so gap heavy and trying to take away the lane, I think the first half they shot maybe what, 14 threes or something. That's not what they probably prefer to do, but we knew they'd make some of those at some point. We still bogged down a little bit on offense, but it was the kind of game I thought [it would be]. But if we make our free throws, it gives us a chance to get away from them a little bit. And we didn't, but that's part of it.
"But I told our guys, you can almost understand that this is really the start of postseason play, the kind of game you're going to be in," continued Barnes. "They're going to be real grind type games. It's a great opponent for us to play against because of how they play and we're going to see some different things now. Tonight, we saw someone that really plays a different style than a lot of teams in the league. And we knew it would be hard and it was."
The win against South Carolina wasn't necessarily pretty for the Vols — Tennessee shot poorly from the free throw line and made just 6-of-21 three-point attempts — but it was probably the best matchup that UT could've had heading into March Madness.
Tennessee will likely see some different styles of play in the NCAA Tournament than what they've seen for most of the season in SEC play. Playing against a South Carolina team that has a different approach than most of the teams in the SEC should have Tennessee even more prepared for the style of play they'll encounter in the NCAA Tournament.
The Gamecocks showed up in Knoxville intent on playing their game and leaving town with a win. They didn't achieve their goal, but the challenge they provided for the Vols will almost certainly pay off for Tennessee in post-season play.
