Butler's Thad Matta gives his take on South Carolina: 'They're really good'

After some mixed results over the last few years, Thad Matta has Butler off to a good start this season, sitting at 4-1 after taking down South Carolina 79-72 on Friday in the Greenbrier Tip-Off.

The Bulldogs weren’t thought of too highly coming into the season, as they were picked to finish in second-to-last in the Big East Preseason Coaches’ Poll. Despite that, they’ve played well through five games and led from start to finish against the previously unbeaten Gamecocks.

“I think they’re really good,” Matta said of South Carolina. “I mean, obviously, Meechie (Johnson) is kind of the head of the snake, and his sidekick, (Eli) Ellis. … They have a really sound team.”

One thing Matta knew about the Gamecocks heading into this matchup was that they had relied a lot on their three-point shooting in their previous games. He’d be right about that, as they’ve taken more than 31 three-point attempts per game this season.

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For the most part, Butler defended well on the outside, holding South Carolina to 7-of-26 shooting (26.9 percent) from beyond the arc. After knocking down double-digit threes in each of their first two games, the Gamecocks haven’t eclipsed double figures in a game since then.

“I thought we did a good job guarding the three-point line today,” Matta said. “What we had seen going into it was that they’re a team that likes to shoot the three, and so that was big for us, to get out and challenge them.”‘

Another big reason for the Bulldogs’ success on Friday came down to how well they played in the paint. They won the rebound battle 48-29 and had 15 offensive rebounds, helping them to 23 second-chance points. They also had 42 points in the paint compared to South Carolina with 32.

“(South Carolina was) a little bit undersized. I thought both Drayton (Jones) and Yohan (Traore) did a really nice job. I mean, Michael (Ajayi) was a man down there as well,” Matta said. “I think that’s something we have to have from those guys. We need production rebounding to finishing at the rim, that sort of thing. We didn’t shoot a ton of threes today, which typically we do, but the game led itself for us to go inside, and I thought we did a good job of that.”

The Gamecocks tried to make it a fair fight by utilizing their two 7-footers off the bench, Jordan Butler and Christ Essandoko. However, they combined for only six points and seven rebounds in 25 total minutes of floor time.

“We did a pretty decent job with that. We told our guys we had to have our coverages right, depending on who was in for them. A couple of times, we got thrown in the first half. We gave up a layup on a move we knew was coming, but I thought we did a decent job with their size of staying down and challenging shots.”

With the first loss in the books, South Carolina is now 4-1 on the year and will return to action on Sunday to take on Northwestern at The Greenbrier.

“I know this, they’re a good team,” Matta said. “Because every time we screwed up something defensively, they made us pay for it. And that’s a sign of a well-coached team.”

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