South Carolina got 'punched in the mouth' in challenging weekend at The Greenbrier

The Greenbrier is in a league of its own when it comes to uniqueness and quality as a luxury resort. Especially around this time of year, every inch of the more than 11,000 acres of land is decorated in the spirit of the Christmas season.

It’s premium for a reason. But as far as putting on a weekend of basketball? That can be a bit more complicated. The Greenbrier hosted its second annual tip-off event this weekend, with South Carolina being one of the four teams to participate, and it’s safe to say playing in a ballroom was a bit jarring.

The walls are mostly covered in pink. The ceiling with the dangling chandeliers feels low to the court. Not to mention the “tight rims” and how that impacted some of the shooting for all teams. It’s far from the run-of-the-mill college basketball venue.

“I think we were all in a tough position playing in that gym. I’m not gonna lie, those are the worst rims I’ve played on in my life,” said Meechie Johnson, who shot 14-of-36 in two games. “There were so many shots that I thought were good or I normally hit that were just going in and out. … I’m not being funny. Those rims were really, really tight.”

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However, none of that was why South Carolina went winless for the weekend at The Greenbrier. The Gamecocks played two solid teams and got beaten in a pair of close games. It’s as simple as that.

In total, they led for less than six minutes in their losses to Butler and Northwestern. They played from behind and never caught up against Butler. Then, after trailing by 12 in the final minutes, they rallied back to tie the game not once but twice against Northwestern, but lost on a last-second layup.

“It was our first real test of the season, and we got punched in the mouth,” Elijah Strong said. “It’s OK. I mean, two really good programs. So it’s just learning experiences, growing pains. Every team has to go through them. Now that we know that we’re not going undefeated, we know what we’ve got to come with next time we play higher competition.”

Even if South Carolina won one of those games, it would’ve been significant. With a fairly light non-conference schedule, these games were prime opportunities to earn quality wins to boost its overall resumé. It’s not a dealbreaker since there’s still a lot of basketball to play and good teams left on the schedule. But this was a chance to see what this team could really do, and for the most part, it didn’t go so well.

“It’s a long season. We’ve got a lot of good games coming up against ACC teams, and obviously playing in the best conference in the country,” Johnson said. “So I just think that I would rather take these losses now than later. I don’t want to take the losses, but I definitely take the losses and learn from them so we can be better later. I like this group a lot.”

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To their credit, the Gamecocks made adjustments from Friday’s loss to Butler and looked better at times against Northwestern. That’s evident by how close the game was. They were much better at rebounding, but still, there were stretches where shots weren’t falling.

While South Carolina shot 45.9 percent from the field, it finished under 30 percent from three-point range. It also went the last 2:39 without a made field goal. Its last four points to tie the game on two separate occasions all came via free throws. That proved to be the true difference.

But if there’s anything that the Gamecocks learned, despite the overall disappointment, they found out they can fight. That was the case last year when they lost so many tight games by only a few points. Will that be the case again this year, and will they find ways to win this time around? Time will tell.

“We have guys that know how to fight, particularly once we hit a run, they recognize that we’ve got a little thing going and that they can pile on top of that,” head coach Lamont Paris said. “The real ones, though, are the ones that prevent the bad situations from turning into worse situations. Those are the most valuable; that’s the most valuable growth that you need. So when we can get to that point, that’ll be good.”

Now, as the team returns to Columbia and gets ready to be back at home for the next few weeks, the next step for them will be proving why they can still be a good team this season.

“That’s where it starts for us,” Strong said. “So it’s all good though. We’re just going to lick our wounds. We’re not gonna feel sorry for ourselves. We’re gonna come out aggressive next time.”

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