*** USC MBB (18-11/9-8) vs. #5/5 Auburn (26-4/14-3) Game Thread ***

[kingofnerf]

South Carolina (18-11, 9-8 SEC) travels west to The Plains to take on No. 5/5 Auburn (26-4, 14-3 SEC) in its regular season finale. Tip time is set for 1 p.m. (ET) on Saturday. The Tigers, who have won four-straight over South Carolina, clinched a share of the SEC Regular Season Championship on Wednesday night with their 81-68 OT win at Mississippi State.

The Gamecocks have won 5-of-6 down the stretch and are seeking the team's first win over a ranked opponent this season.

Kevin Fitzgerald (pxp) and Dane Bradshaw (analyst) will be on-site for the SEC Network broadcast.

The 2022 SEC Tournament is on tap for Carolina next week in Tampa at Amalie Arena. The Gamecocks will be playing on Thursday, a game time and an opponent yet to be determined. Carolina is currently seventh in the SEC standings with just one game separating teams battling for seeds five through 10.

VENUE: Auburn Arena (9,121)
BROADCAST: SEC Network (on-site)
PLAY-BY-PLAY: Kevin Fitzgerald
ANALYST: Dane Bradshaw
RADIO: Gamecock Radio Network
IN COLUMBIA: 107.5 The Game
PLAY-BY-PLAY: Derek Scott
ANALYST: Casey Manning
SIRIUS: --- | XM: 383 | SXM APP: 973
WATCH: WatchESPN/ESPN App
LIVE STATS: GamecocksOnline.com
SERIES: Tigers lead, 28-19
at AUBURN: Tigers lead, 12-8
Neutral: tied, 3-3
SERIES TREND: Auburn has won four-straight
LAST MEETING: 81-66, Auburn win on Jan. 4. 2022 at Colonial Life Arena to open SEC play

https://gamecocksonline.com/news/20...uburn-for-regular-season-finale-saturday.aspx

 

[GMB2USC23]

Reese and Couisnard heating up... and Stevenson finally hit a 3 22-24 Auburn up 2 with 7 to play

 

[GMB2USC23]

We weathered the early storm to pull within 2, Auburn goes on a run and Reese is keeping us in it with 14, GAMECOCKS down 10 37-27 with 3 to play as we start trying to shoot 3's with not a lot of passing

 

[GMB2USC23]

We need a Dexter Carter run to end the half to help Reese

 

[GMB2USC23]

Auburn stretched out there lead 48-31 to end the half
We gotta give Reese some help

 

[kingofnerf]

Frank on Wildens' poor play after the game:

“Watching him play has hurt my eyes,” said Martin. “So you can say the injury is my eyesight.”

Leveque did not record any counting stats but did manage to pick up two fouls in his two minutes of playing time. Leveque’s playing time came in the opening minutes of the game. Auburn took an 8-0 lead before a timeout just past the two minute mark.

Leveque was benched then and did not make another appearance. He has started in all but one of South Carolina’s games this year and was in the starting lineup against Auburn.

He is the Gamecocks’ most reliable big man, from a statistical perspective, averaging 6.8 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. Martin has never been afraid to mince words when it comes to South Carolina’s lackluster post play, though.

"It's embarrassing. I don't throw kids under the bus but I don't know what to do,” Martin said on the play of his big men following a loss to Tennessee. “Our guards are our leading rebounders every game. Our guards actually get more rebounds than our big guys put together, the people that play at the four and the five. That's deflating. We get no scoring from there, no rebounding from there. Ball screen coverage is hit and miss. They don't screen. (John) Fulkerson's been here (Tennessee) for six years. He's coming off the bench. If they tell him to screen, he knocks the piss out of you. I wish my guys would do that. I used to be able to make them do it. Now you try to make people do those things, you're a bad guy. Nobody likes you and I end up shoveling you-know-what for a living again. Which I'd rather not do.

South Carolina basketball coach Frank Martin blasts center Wildens Leveque

...

247sports.com

Tanner, as AD, should have stepped in and reinforced to Wildens what Frank needs him to do by now and likely hasn't.

If Frank feels he doesn't need to ask Tanner for help with a problem like this, then Frank is the issue. However, I feel Tanner should be stepping in on his own as soon as our record starts to slip past a certain point in the regular season.

Stuff like this is why I say we need a new AD, because Tanner appears to be sleep-walkin' to me.

 

[Longhaul]

Not a good look for Frank to slam him in the media IMO. Bigs have not played well all season so it is the bigs or the coaching of them?

 

[doublea1971]

Not a good look for Frank to slam him in the media IMO. Bigs have not played well all season so it is the bigs or the coaching of them?

Just read ANY of my posts all season long. I’ve been calling for a coaching change for our staff (not change with Frank) with regard to the bigs since our out of conference schedule. The SEC schedule just exacerbated the issue. It’s CLEARLY the coaching. Just fundamentals that none of them are getting right. The others can do these things, so the bigs can as well. It’s coaching, pure and simple.

 

[kingofnerf]

This is the SEC finished up after this past weekend's games:

		CONF	OVERALL	HOME	ROAD	NEUTRAL	PF	PA	STRK
1	Auburn	15-3	27-4	16-0	8-3	3-1	2457	2078	W2
2	Kentucky	14-4	25-6	18-0	6-5	1-1	2483	2038	W2
3	Tennessee	14-4	23-7	16-0	6-5	1-2	2209	1900	W4
4	Arkansas	13-5	24-7	17-1	5-4	2-2	2396	2113	L-1
5	LSU	9-9	21-10	15-2	3-8	3-0	2270	1950	W1
6	Texas A&M	9-9	20-11	13-4	5-5	2-2	2266	2069	W4
7	Alabama	9-9	19-12	13-3	3-7	3-2	2483	2363	L-2
8	Florida	9-9	19-12	12-5	4-6	3-1	2185	2032	L-1
9	South Carolina	9-9	18-12	12-4	4-7	2-1	2149	2105	L-1
10	Mississippi State	8-10	17-14	14-3	1-9	2-2	2207	2069	L-2
11	Vanderbilt	7-11	15-15	9-8	5-7	1-0	2084	2024	W1
12	Missouri	5-13	11-20	8-8	2-10	1-2	2020	2189	W1
13	Ole Miss	4-14	13-18	10-8	2-7	1-3	2120	2125	L-4
14	Georgia	1-17	6-25	6-13	0-10	0-2	2183	2426	L-11

Here is the SECT bracket:

SEC Men's Basketball Bracket

Real-time SEC Men's Basketball bracket on SECSports.com.

www.secsports.com

We ended up being the 7-seed for the SECT and play MSST Thursday night. That's a winnable game for us.

Play it and see what happens.