Three things to watch for as South Carolina goes on the road against Alabama

South Carolina men’s basketball hits the road to face Alabama on Saturday afternoon. The Gamecocks are in the midst of a season-long five-game losing streak. Meanwhile, the Crimson Tide have won their past three games.

Alabama currently sits two games back of the conference lead. Tip-off from Coleman Coliseum will be at 8:30 p.m. on SEC Network.

Here are three things to watch as the Gamecocks (11-13, 2-9 SEC) face off against the Crimson Tide (17-7, 7-4 SEC).

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The tortoise and the hare

South Carolina’s offensive scheme is not the fastest in the nation. In fact, per KenPom, the Gamecocks are 13th in the SEC and 238th in D-I in adjusted tempo. Alabama’s tempo is actually the fastest speed on offense in the nation. The Crimson Tide average the most possessions per game, not just in the SEC, but out of all teams in Division I.

Alabama’s fast tempo has led to high-scoring numbers for the Crimson Tide offense. In all three of their last games, they’ve hit the 90-point mark. In fact, Alabama has scored over 80 points in 20 games this season. However, the Crimson Tide are 0-4 when scoring 80 or less point. In their past five games against the Gamecocks, the Crimson Tide have hit the 80-point mark three times. South Carolina is 0-5 in those games, and they haven’t beaten the Tide since 2016.

But a fast tempo has led to mistakes on the defensive end at times for Alabama. The Crimson Tide, on average, give up 83.0 points per game. Not only is that the highest average in the conference, but no other SEC defense is averaging more than 79.0 PPG given up this season. South Carolina, on the other hand, is tied for 8th in the SEC with an average of 75.4 points given up per game.

South Carolina has already played against five of the six fastest-paced offenses in the SEC. They’ve lost every game. However, the Gamecocks did experience some success against Georgia, the second-fastest tempo in the conference. South Carolina scored 40 points in the first half against the Bulldogs, which is its second-highest output in a first half against an SEC opponent this season.

Time to limit the turnovers

As of recent, Alabama’s defense isn’t forcing turnovers. Meanwhile, South Carolina, despite its losing streak, has been efficient at limiting turnovers on offense. The Crimson Tide are last in the SEC over the past five games with a 7.9% opponent turnover rate. The Gamecocks? Just an 11.3% turnover rate on offense.

For the season, South Carolina is fifth in the conference with just 10.0 turnovers per game. Despite their results in their past four games, the Gamecocks tallied less turnovers than their opponent in all of them. Two Gamecocks have been especially strong in that aspect. Both Elijah Strong and Eli Ellis have below a 10% turnover rate against SEC opponents.

If the Gamecocks give up just a few turnovers on offense, it could allow for more offensive opportunities. But for whatever reason, it hasn’t quite correlated with wins and losses. South Carolina is 5-10 when committing less than 12 turnovers in a game this season. However, when the Gamecocks record 12 or more turnovers this season, they’re actually 6-3. This mark includes the team’s conference win over Oklahoma.

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Can Eli Ellis keep up his shooting streak?

Freshman Eli Ellis didn’t start the year with the best shooting marks. In fact, he shot 22.2% from deep on three attempts per game in the non-conference portion of the schedule. Even for the first two weeks of conference games, the point guard struggled shooting, making only 26.7% of his threes in that span. Recently, however, he’s turned a corner.

Ellis, since coming back from injury, is sporting a 44.6% 3PT%. That’s a kind of mark that would lead a conference if kept up for a full season. In all four games back, he’s hit a three. That includes a three-triple performance against LSU, tying a career-high. That’s correlated with an increased offensive production compared to pre-injury stats. In 11 games between the team’s loss to Northwestern and the loss to Arkansas, Ellis scored 10+ points three times. Meanwhile, he’s managed to score 10+ points in three of his last four contests after coming back from injury.

He’s not the only player on the Gamecocks with a hot streak recently. Kobe Knox leads South Carolina with a 41.2 3PT% over the team’s last 10 games. The South Florida transfer is shooting even better during the team’s losing streak: he’s made half of his attempts from deep during the five-game skid. Unfortunately for the Gamecocks, not every player is producing at that level from beyond the arc. Grant Polk‘s hot start the to season has cooled off. Despite a season-long average of 33.3% from deep, Polk is 1-19 (5.3%) from three since the team’s victory over LSU.

How does Alabama defend against the three? The Crimson Tide are pretty good at limiting shots from deep on defense, ranking sixth in the conference with a 31.9% opponent three-point percentage in SEC games. However, in their last four games, they’ve given up an average of 90.8 points per game. Alabama’s defense from beyond the arc is allowing opponents to shoot a decent 35.1% in that span. That could be good news for South Carolina.

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