South Carolina demanding more physicality after Butler loss: 'It's an effort thing'

In a lot of ways, Friday was a bit of a wakeup call for South Carolina. Not just because it suffered its first loss of the year in its first game against a quality opponent, but more so, by the way in which it lost.

The Gamecocks, for lack of a better term, got dominated by Butler inside the paint in a 79-72 loss in the opening game of the Greenbrier Tip-Off. They were outrebounded 48-29 and allowed 15 offensive rebounds to the Bulldogs, which directly led to 23 second-chance points.

South Carolina didn’t always help itself from a shooting standpoint, as it missed on some clean looks from the outside and didn’t always finish on driving layups. But that’s only one element of this loss. A lack of paint presence was a concern coming into the season, and it certainly was in this game.

“I think (Butler) kicked our rear ends physically,” head coach Lamont Paris said. “Which hopefully will be good for us and incite some changes in mindset, which will incite some changes to what we’re doing physically, which will hopefully lead to some different results.”

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Right from the start of the game, the Gamecocks proved to be no match for Butler’s physicality. The Bulldogs grabbed 27 first-half rebounds compared to South Carolina’s 15. That trend continued into the second half, albeit it was a bit more evened out compared to before.

“They must stay in the weight room because those dudes were strong,” Eli Ellis said of Butler. “They were tough. They played really, really hard, and they had guards that were knocking down shots, making good reads. But they were a well put together team and a really physical team.”

However, in a game that South Carolina lost by seven points, this was the difference. All those second-chance opportunities were a dagger that kept it from ever claiming the lead as it played catch-up from start to finish.

The Gamecocks tried to counteract what Butler was doing on the glass by deploying their two tallest players in 7-footers Jordan Butler and Christ Essandoko, to even the playing field. Butler had six points on 2-of-3 shooting with four rebounds, while Essandoko grabbed three rebounds in a combined 25 minutes of floor time.

“I thought they were attacking the rim hard, even with some of their bigs getting some things to happen,” Paris said. “Christ is our most massive guy, so I thought that’d look to help, and those guys played well relative to the other group tonight. That was the real reason why we tried to make that work.”

That goes back to the issue at hand, though. Paris admitted the frontcourt has been a “bit of a revolving door” so far this season in trying to replace what they lost with Collin Murray-Boyles. He’s still looking for one or two players who can establish themselves, not just as a scorer, but also as a threat down low.

But it’s not just a lack of a solid frontcourt that’s the problem. South Carolina simply wasn’t as physical as Butler was. Giving up nearly 50 rebounds to a team doesn’t happen by accident, even with how good the Bulldogs have been at rebounding early on in this season.

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Discussions were had by both players and coaches. If the Gamecocks want to have a chance, they have to play more physical and win the rebound battle.

“It’s an effort thing,” Ellis said. “Just being physical and taking that upon yourself, a few guys that just be like, I don’t care if I score, don’t care if I foul out, I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure we get those boards. And I think it’s as a whole, as a team, we have to just come together and do it takes a rebound.”

Come Sunday, when South Carolina takes on Northwestern at The Greenbrier, the team anticipates there to be a change. How can they be so sure? From the sound of it, the players have been good about holding each other accountable, regardless of their ranking on the team.

“That’s what makes our team so good,” Kobe Knox said. “We’ve got older guys who are in their last year. We got younger guys. Sometimes the younger guys hold older guys accountable. If they see we’re not being physical, they’re gonna say it right to our face, and we’ve got to accept that, just being coachable, not only by the coaches, but our teammates.”

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