GamecockScoop - MBB: Previewing Georgetown With Ron Bailey From HoyaReport.com
Ron Bailey is the Publisher at HoyaReport.com, the Georgetown site on Rivals.
southcarolina.rivals.com
Also, if you're interested, here are my answers to the questions he asked me for their site:
1) How has super young player GG Jackson acclimated to the college game? is he ready to be USC's lead guy?
South Carolina has the distinction of starting the youngest player in the NCAA this season, with 17-year-old G.G. Jackson playing the majority of every game thus far. It's hard to say whether he's truly ready to be the lead guy, but he's sort of being forced to, and to a great degree, he's answered the challenge, averaging 32 minutes, and 16.3 points with another 7.4 rebounds per game. That said, the trip to D.C. did not get off on the right foot for Jackson, who had his worst game of his short career on Wednesday at George Washington. His stat-line still ended up decently enough, 11 points and 6 rebounds, but he started the game just 1-10 from the floor, and never seemed to really get into a rhythm. That's going to happen from time to time, but outside of some timely shooting at times from Chico Carter Jr. there has been a consistent struggle to get points throughout the season thus far, with the Gamecocks averaging just 62.3 points per game, while giving up 71.4. It's easy to see why their only decent win thus far was a home game vs. Clemson which is looking more and more like a fluke as the season wears on.
2) Defensively, how do the 'Cocks play?
Not well so far. No, I know that's not the question you are asking. They've changed up their defensive looks a few times, mostly because not much has worked. They ran some 1-3-1 on Wednesday with moderate success, but they've really struggled to defend on the perimeter, with any team that has decent outside shooting getting open looks consistently. Once those start to fall, the bigs start to cheat outside, leaving lanes for teams to attack South Carolina on the inside. Another thing they've struggled with is athletic guard play. They simple don't have the speed on the perimeter to cut off those lanes. If Georgetown can get Primo Spears going, it's going to be a long night for South Carolina.
3) Offensively, what do they do?
Offensively, Coach Lamont Paris likes to play a bit of a free-flowing style, letting his playmakers create their own shot, and he's attempting to construct a roster where everyone has the ability to take jump shots, even the bigs. That's had mixed results thus far. When G.G. Jackson and Hayden Brown have been able to knock down shots, they've found a way to get into a rhythm, but they are still badly missing consistently from the PG position. PG Meechie Johnson missed several games with an injury, and didn't quite look like himself on Wednesday. If he can get going again, I think the offensive production will follow, but we've seen that when he's absent or struggles, manufacturing consistent offense has been hard to come by.
