No. 11 Vanderbilt hopes to keep one of the country’s longest winning streaks alive as it visits South Carolina in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams in Columbia, S.C.
The Commodores (13-0) are one of the favorites to win the SEC. They’re the highest-ranked SEC team in the AP poll and also at major analytics sites like KenPom (seventh).
The Gamecocks (9-4) rank toward the lower end in the 16-team SEC at those same sites. However, South Carolina is 9-1 at Colonial Life Arena this season with a four-game winning streak in the building.
This will be the Gamecocks’ stiffest home test to date. Vanderbilt is 3-0 in neutral-site games and 3-0 in true road contests, the last being a 98-67 whipping of Wake Forest on Dec. 21. Five of those six wins came against teams ranked in the top 75 at KenPom.
Meechie Johnson (14.0 points per game), Mike Sharavjamts (11.8) and Eli Ellis (10.2) pace the Gamecocks in scoring. Sharavjamts leads them in field-goal (54.1) and free-throw (90.5) percentage, rebounding (5.9 per game) and blocks (0.8).
The Gamecocks (81.0 ppg) have greatly improved their shooting this season. South Carolina ranks eighth in 2-point percentage (62.0) and seventh in free-throw percentage (79.5) per KenPom.
Carolina shot it particularly well (60% from 2, 46.7% on 3s) in Tuesday’s 96-67 win over Albany, and coach Lamont Paris was pleased.
“Thought was a really good performance overall by our guys, you know, especially on the offensive end, I think you could see that we made some shots and we were moving the ball, we had a lot of assists,” Paris said.
“Probably how I would like our offense to look, not just the shot making, but that they come by way of assists, and we’re aggressive in doing that stuff.”
Vanderbilt has been a complete team, thanks to outstanding shooting (51.2% on 2-pointers, 37.6% on 3s and 76.6% from the foul line) and the country’s 10th-best steal rate (10.6%).
Combo guards Duke Miles (17.1 points, 2.8 steals per game), Tyler Tanner (16.0, 2.7) and Frankie Collins (7.8, 2.4) have keyed a ball-hawking defense that has created tons of easy fast-break scores this year.
They have had a big hand in breakout seasons for Tyler Nickel (14.8 ppg and a 48.5% success rate on his 99 3-point attempts) and senior Jalen Washington (10.2 ppg, 62.9% on field goals), who’s having far and away his best collegiate season after transferring from North Carolina.
However, the Commodores will be without Collins, who suffered a recent meniscus injury, for this one. He also missed the Wake win with that injury.
Nor did Vanderbilt have Miles (illness) but the Commodores managed to rout New Haven, 96-53, without them on Monday.
“(We) have (our) three primary ball-handlers out tonight, including one that was sudden,” coach Mark Byington said. “You’re playing a team that slows you down. You don’t like to play that way if you’re given a choice. I mean, you got to be happy about the way you handled all those things.”
–Field Level Media
