The South Carolina Gamecocks (8-7, 0-1) will welcome conference rival Vanderbilt (11-4, 1-0) to Colonial Life Arena Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET for the Gamecocks' SEC home opener. The game will air live on ESPNU.
After a rocky start to the season, Darrin Horn's Gamecocks have started to find a winning groove as of late, winning six of their last eight after losing three straight earlier in the year. Both of South Carolina's losses in the eight game span have been to then-No. 2 Ohio State and No. 2 Kentucky last Saturday in Lexington. USC has shown some promising signs in the past few week's and Coach Horn is hoping to build on those things.
“After having an opportunity to review the film from Saturday, we saw a lot of really, really good things that we emphasized and wanted to focus on, mainly taking care of the basketball and rebounding,” Horn said. “To out-rebound that team was a really good job and the job we did on the offensive glass was something that we want to build on moving forward.”
If Horn and the Gamecocks want to have success against Vanderbilt Tuesday night, they're going to need a great offensive effort against one of the best defensive units in the conference. In the Commodores' last game vs. Auburn, Vanderbilt's stifling defense held the Tigers to just 35 points, in route to a convincing 65-35 win to move to 1-0 in the SEC.
“We’ve got to find a way to put those things together as we move forward through conference play," Horn said. "Every game is a new challenge and I think Vanderbilt presents a great challenge from the standpoint that, defensively, they’re as good, if not the best team in our league.”
Not only will the Gamecocks need a stellar offensive game to upset Vanderbilt, South Carolina will need to focus on stopping Vanderbilt's offensive attack, led by junior guard John Jenkins, who leads the SEC in scoring with 20.3 points per game.
“He’s a great scorer and terrific shooter,” Horn said. “Obviously, he’s the focal point of their offense. Usually guys like that are going to find a way to get enough shots and have enough offensive opportunities — there’s a reason he scores 20 points per game even though every team that plays him is trying to shut him down. I think any time you play a player of his caliber, I think you’ve got to try to make it as hard on him as you can and do your very best to try to limit as much as possible.”
The Gamecocks opened conference play last year with a 83-75 upset of Vanderbilt in overtime. Sam Muldrow had a triple double in the game to lead South Carolina to a 1-0 start in SEC play. This year is the first season under Darrin Horn that the Gamecocks haven't started conference play with a victory.
Senior Malik Cooke is looking to help South Carolina turn it around Tuesday with a victory over a tough Vanderbilt squad.
“We feel like we can beat anybody on any given night,” Cooke said. “It was a learning experience last year and we learned a lot from that game and hopefully we can carry that into this one.”
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