Three things to watch for as South Carolina takes on Southern Miss

South Carolina basketball coach Lamont Paris and his team are 1-0 to start the 2025-2026 season. The Gamecocks won handily over North Carolina A&T in the season opener on Tuesday and will look to win the second of four straight home games on Sunday night against Southern Miss.

Colonial Life Arena will host the 6:30 p.m. showdown. SEC Network will handle the broadcast, while the ESPN app makes the action available via streaming. South Carolina enters the contest as an 18.5-point favorite in the first meeting between the two schools in over 30 years. The Gamecocks and Golden Eagles were once league foes in the Metro Conference.

Here are three things to watch for before South Carolina and Southern Miss tip off on Sunday evening.

🏀 Attention: GamecockCentral is at the game to provide updates. Follow along on the The Insiders Forum (beginning approximately 30 minutes before tip-off). Don’t miss any of the action!

Will the offensive fireworks continue?

Following a disappointing 2024-2025 season, South Carolina fans knew the Gamecocks would have to be much improved on offense to have a better season in year four of the Lamont Paris era. Though the campaign is just one regular-season game and two exhibitions deep, it looks like USC will be much better at putting the pumpkin in the basketball.

South Carolina reportedly handled business against Georgia Tech in one preseason exhibition. Then, they went toe-to-toe with a nearly-ranked NC State squad, scoring 86 points. In the official season opener, the offense dropped 91 in a comfortable win over North Carolina A&T.

This year’s edition of the Gamecocks isn’t afraid to launch from deep. Carolina canned 14 3-pointers in the win over NC A&T. The perimeter barrage likely will continue against Southern Miss.

If Carolina can keep knocking them down, they likely will win again. More importantly, they could continue growing in confidence and cohesion as they look to develop a winning attitude like the program’s NCAA Tournament team from two years ago.

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Will the defense match the offense?

One of the biggest question marks around Lamont Paris’ team this year is about how well they can defend. South Carolina has some capable athletes and some players with intriguing positional size. However, there aren’t many proven defenders on the team.

It’s a small sample size, but the exhibition against NC State and the opener against North Carolina A&T weren’t masterclass efforts on the defensive end of the floor, either.

If South Carolina is going to have a chance at competing for the NCAA Tournament, the defense must be better.

Lamont Paris is a defensive-minded coach, and he demands his team play hard on that end of the court. This preseason, he spoke optimistically about players like Kobe Knox, Mike Sharavjamts, and Meechie Johnson defending on the perimeter. If they perform well, that will be a huge boon for the Gamecocks. The post defense is more undecided, as the only two players on the roster taller than 6-9 are coming off the bench.

Time will tell how well this year’s team can keep other teams from scoring, but a good effort against Southern Miss could go a long way.

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What will the starting lineup be?

In the early goings of the year, the Gamecocks’ starting lineup will be worth monitoring.

During the preseason, South Carolina was expected to start Mike Sharavjamts, Meechie Johnson, Myles Stute, Nordin Kapic, and Elijah Strong. However, to insert more (theoretical) post defense into the lineup, Jordan Butler started in the NC State exhibition. Then, for the opener, Butler slid to the bench, but not for Strong; instead, Stute kicked down to a small-ball power forward role, and Kobe Knox entered the starting five.

What might it look like against the Golden Eagles?

Paris likely will spend much of non-conference play experimenting with on-court combinations. That could affect starting lineups, or it could just see different looks for the rotation. Either way, Sharavjamts, Johnson, Stute, Kapic, Strong, Butler, and Knox–and, potentially, freshman Eli Ellis–could find themselves among the first group based on early returns.

🏀 Attention: GamecockCentral is at the game to provide updates. Follow along on the The Insiders Forum (beginning approximately 30 minutes before tip-off). Don’t miss any of the action!