South Carolina guard provides spark in second conference win of 2026

Midway through the second half of Tuesday’s game between South Carolina and Oklahoma, A long rebound put the Sooners’ Nijel Pack on the fast break. Matching him stride for stride was Gamecocks forward Kobe Knox.

As both players got close to the basket, Knox stutterstepped, waited for Pack to go up, and blocked it off the backboard. However, he timed it too late. The play ended as a goaltending violation, and Oklahoma cut South Carolina’s lead to five. 

While the mistimed attempt resulted in a violation, Knox’s determination was where it needed to be at all times. 

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Knox ended Tuesday’s 85-76 win with a season-high 18 points alongside three assists and a team-high seven rebounds. He finished one point off his career high of 19 points, which he earned as a USF Bull against East Texas A&M. 

Getting the senior guard to be more aggressive in getting to the rim and cutting is something head coach Lamont Paris has worked on with him throughout the season. It’s an area of his game that Paris believes is one of his best.

Knox shoots 79.5 percent at the rim, missing only eight of his 39 attempts this season. However, it only accounts for 36.1 percent of his attempts, according to CBB Analytics.

“We’ve got a team again that tends to be perimeter-oriented, not that your shots have to come from there,” Paris said postgame. “And at some point, you have to breach that perimeter with a cut or drive … however you get the ball in there, you have to put pressure on the rim.”

Part of what makes Knox’s driving ability so important to Paris is being able to draw fouls. To him, it is the one thing that can show up in the stat sheet that shows someone being a good cutter. Against the Sooners, Knox shot six free throws and made three. Knox said his coaches told him it also helps out guard Meechie Johnson when he’s jammed by the defender.

Knox looks to keep the high rim pressure up by remaining aggressive and looking for open gaps.

“It’s not like just drawn up specifically for me, but it’s just, you know, we got a free-flowing offense. Just want to keep being aggressive,” Knox said.

His teammates’ cutting ability also allows the Gamecocks to space the floor. Additionally, it allows South Carolina to be more selective with its three-point attempts. The Gamecocks attempted 20 threes against the Sooners, down from their season average of 27.4 per game.

You also have fewer eyes on you as a driver when guys are moving around consistently. When an offense gets stagnant, a cutter may have three or four guys looking at him, Paris said. It also forces a defense to almost turn into a zone against you.

“Today we had really good movement. We got fatigued towards the end of the first half, I told the guys, I can tell when you start to get tired,” Paris said. “Your mouth says you’re not tired, but your body stays in the same place, so I know you’re getting fatigued. And so that was, we freshened up a little bit. And then we got back to moving.”

Knox has also improved as a defender throughout the season. However, Paris believes he is nowhere close to his defensive ceiling.

“I still think he should be, or could be, one of the best on-ball defenders in the conference. I honestly do believe that just with his length, his athleticism, he’s sneaky athletic,” Paris said. “It’s just a smooth, effortless athleticism, but he’s really athletic, and those things should bode well for him as an elite defender.”

Knox has improved defensive rebound percentage and defensive rebounds per game over the last five games, according to CBB Analytics. Additionally, he maintains a commendable blocks per personal foul and block percentage throughout. Earlier in the season, Paris said he did not do a great job at grabbing the ball off a miss.

“His defensive rebounding numbers were not particularly good, and so he has done a better job of rebounding, too,” Paris said. “But you get with that frame, and he’s got good instincts on identifying where the ball is. He should be a good rebounder. And today was a really good example of that.”

Paris’s assistant coach, Will Bailey, told Knox, who had one rebound at halftime, that if he got seven, they would win the game. Knox finished with exactly seven, and the Gamecocks won by eight.

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