South Carolina Basketball: A repeat of 2016? Gamecocks stumbling down the stretch

South Carolina basketball has lost four out of their last five, including a tough loss to Florida on Tuesday evening.

The South Carolina Gamecocks were 13-0 heading into SEC play in 2015-16 and were 22-5 (9-5 in SEC) after beating the Florida Gators in overtime on February 20.

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Then suddenly, Frank Martin’s team collapsed, losing three of their final four against a bad Mississippi State team and Georgia twice. Combine their ugly finish with the fact that their non-conference resume was brutal and the SEC was down, and South Carolina did not earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Could deja vu strike again in 2016-17?

South Carolina has better quality wins (Syracuse, Michigan, Florida) this year, but they have also lost four of their last five, including a four-OT loss to Alabama, a home loss to Arkansas, a road defeat against Vanderbilt and a 15-point downer against the Gators. Their lone win over this recent stretch of games is against Mississippi State and that came by only four points on the road.

This is not to say that South Carolina is going to miss the NCAA Tournament — they are surely in as of now. However, they can ill afford to trip up in their final three games due to the fact that all three of their opponents (Tennessee, Mississippi State, Ole Mis) are unlikely to make March Madness.

If South Carolina wins all three games, they should be a lock to make the tournament. If they win two out of three, they may have to make a little bit of noise in the SEC tournament. Anything beyond that could be really bad news for the Gamecocks.

Regardless, their defense has not been elite over these last five games and their offense has been consistently bad. And that’s the problem with SC this year, their offense (beyond Sindarius Thornwell and sometimes Duane Notice and P.J. Dozier) is weak beyond belief. They have very little post play and they aren’t great shooting the ball from the outside.

Martin’s squad has been able to cover up for that lack of offensive production by playing outstanding defense that harasses opponents into bad decisions and tough contested shots. In their last five match-ups though, South Carolina is giving up an average of 79.6 points per game, which is not going to get it done in the NCAA Tournament unless the team has a breakout offensive night.

Next: February Bubble Watch and the Twitter mailbag

If the Gamecocks want to avoid last year’s dramatics on Selection Sunday, South Carolina needs to buckle up down the stretch on both ends. Things might get truly ugly if not.