ATHENS, Ga. — South Carolina men's basketball dropped to 0-8 in SEC play with a 71-60 loss to Georgia at Stegeman Coliseum. The Gamecocks fell behind 14-3 off the opening tip and never led, only drawing as close as nine points in the second half. After the game, forward Nick Pringle and guard Jamarii Thomas met with the media off podium. Here is everything the two players said as the Gamecocks look to re-group on Saturday against Texas A&M.
Nick Pringle:
On the offensive struggles as a team:
"Definitely the aggression. Guys are pressuring us a lot. We've made it known to the world that we're not really that tough with the ball. It's a mental thing at this point. Coach is preaching in the locker room to be strong with the ball and value it. That's been a struggle for us. Having 10+ turnovers these last couple games has been tough for us. A lot of those plays turn into points. It's kind of tough for us to recover from that once that happens. That's just something we have to work on."
On solving a problem that's more mental than physical:
"It's just about keeping it alive, man. That starts in practice. We just have to raise the intensity even more. I feel like we've been making strides with these past games, close games against top teams. We're right there, I just feel like we need a breaking point somewhere. I've still got a lot of faith. This is frustrating, but there is still a lot of faith. No matter how games go, still come to practice with high energy and try to figure out another way. The things we see out here [on the court] are kind of uncommon. We don't really see it in practice. We're trying to figure out whether it's our defensive intensity in practice, is it guys get a little frazzled when they get out here, but we don't see much of that in practice. We see a lot of confidence. We've just got to figure it out. We've just got to break through."
On the team morale with an 0-8 league record:
"As an older guy, I've never been in this position before, but the only thing I can do is continue to encourage guys to be better, including myself. I didn't have the best games these past games. Just trying to find a way, honestly. Coach is laying it all out for us and telling us to play. That's just something we've got to do; we've got to be tougher. Just change that mindset with a few guys, just get everyone onto the same page, and I think we'll be fine. We've still got would be a Cinderella story, but we still can make it happen. I feel like we can compete with any team, we've just got to learn how to finish games and take care of the ball."
On Georgia's bigs disrupting the offense:
"Really just trying to find our rhyhthm on offense led to some bad shots that led to blocks as well. If it's a dead ball situation, just get it to a body and find an open space on the court to receive the ball. But I feel like they're did a good job. A lot of credit to Georgia's bigs, but I still feel like we could've done a lot more against them. But a lot of respect to them. They played a great game."
Nick Pringle:
On the offensive struggles as a team:
"Definitely the aggression. Guys are pressuring us a lot. We've made it known to the world that we're not really that tough with the ball. It's a mental thing at this point. Coach is preaching in the locker room to be strong with the ball and value it. That's been a struggle for us. Having 10+ turnovers these last couple games has been tough for us. A lot of those plays turn into points. It's kind of tough for us to recover from that once that happens. That's just something we have to work on."
On solving a problem that's more mental than physical:
"It's just about keeping it alive, man. That starts in practice. We just have to raise the intensity even more. I feel like we've been making strides with these past games, close games against top teams. We're right there, I just feel like we need a breaking point somewhere. I've still got a lot of faith. This is frustrating, but there is still a lot of faith. No matter how games go, still come to practice with high energy and try to figure out another way. The things we see out here [on the court] are kind of uncommon. We don't really see it in practice. We're trying to figure out whether it's our defensive intensity in practice, is it guys get a little frazzled when they get out here, but we don't see much of that in practice. We see a lot of confidence. We've just got to figure it out. We've just got to break through."
On the team morale with an 0-8 league record:
"As an older guy, I've never been in this position before, but the only thing I can do is continue to encourage guys to be better, including myself. I didn't have the best games these past games. Just trying to find a way, honestly. Coach is laying it all out for us and telling us to play. That's just something we've got to do; we've got to be tougher. Just change that mindset with a few guys, just get everyone onto the same page, and I think we'll be fine. We've still got would be a Cinderella story, but we still can make it happen. I feel like we can compete with any team, we've just got to learn how to finish games and take care of the ball."
On Georgia's bigs disrupting the offense:
"Really just trying to find our rhyhthm on offense led to some bad shots that led to blocks as well. If it's a dead ball situation, just get it to a body and find an open space on the court to receive the ball. But I feel like they're did a good job. A lot of credit to Georgia's bigs, but I still feel like we could've done a lot more against them. But a lot of respect to them. They played a great game."
