South Carolina Basketball: 3 takeaways from Gamecocks loss to Houston
Offensive struggles in second half
I don’t think that the first half of Saturday’s game could have gone any better for the Gamecocks, as they had no problem getting the shots they wanted on the offensive end, and confusing the Cougars on the defensive end.
When I watched Houston’s season opener against Lamar, I noted that the Cougars had trouble against the Cardinals 2-3 zone. This is because they didn’t seem to be able/willing to penetrate the gaps, and force one of the defenders at either elbow to step up, and commit to them.
Frank Martin and the Gamecocks must have picked up on this during their film session because their 2-3 zone puzzled the Cougars the entire first half. I think that because Houston didn’t know how they wanted to attack the Gamecocks zone, they resorted to passing the ball around the perimeter for 25 seconds, and then hoisting up long-distance threes, as the shot clock was winding down.
They rarely got the ball to the high-post, and when they did, the big that caught the ball in that spot did not try to swing the ball over to the opposite side of the floor, so that the Gamecocks defense would shift.
However, in the second half, the Cougars finally figured out the Gamecocks disciplined 2-3 zone and started to pick it apart one possession at a time. I think that the Cougars’ ability to find their way offensively, helped them pick up their intensity on the defensive end. When this occurred, the Gamecocks struggled to obtain the same offensive success, that they benefited from in the first half.
The biggest problem that plagued the Gamecocks in the second half, was their lack of composure and execution under heavy pressure. South Carolina’s guards took turns bringing the ball up the court and having the responsibility of taking care of the ball and making the right reads, while their defenders were trying to impact their decision-making.
However, they all had trouble getting their defenders off their backs, and preventing Houston’s guards from baiting them into abandoning their sets, and attempting to make a personal decision, to make each possession about them (or in other words, playing selfish basketball).
The Gamecocks certainly would have been able to function offensively, if they had allowed themselves to implement dribble hand-offs more often, in the beginning of possessions, so that one guy would not have to keep the ball in their hands for 10+ seconds.
I also think the Gamecocks would have been more effective if they had tried to run the set for AJ Lawson, which already proved to be successful in the game more often. Essentially, the set started with AJ standing on either wing and then sprinting over to the opposite wing, while forcing his defenders to chase him.
As this action was occurring, South Carolina’s two bigs would turn and set screens on both elbows, so that when Lawson caught the ball on either wing and exploded toward the basket, there would be no help down low (because Houston would be more focused, on fighting through the screens). This allowed Lawson to elevate at the rim, and finish with ease.
Even if the Gamecocks felt as though the Cougars, would eventually find a way to defend this set, they could have tried to run a slightly different version of it. Perhaps, a version where one of the bigs at either elbow, would set AJ Lawson a ball-screen, so he would not have to try and do all of the work by himself (if his man had arrived immediately on the catch).
If the Gamecocks had made just one adjustment in the second half and avoided trying to prove that they could make their individual defenders pay, for defending them too closely, they could have walked away with a marquee early season victory on Saturday. Instead, they elected to run the same “offense” (if you even want to call it that), which helped the Cougars increase their lead to double-digits in half #2, which is why the contest played out the way that it did.