Three things to watch for as South Carolina returns home to take on Charleston Southern

South Carolina returns to Colonial Life Arena to host Charleston Southern on Black Friday. Tip-off is at 4 p.m. on SEC Network+.

Here are three things to watch for before the Gamecocks (4-2) tip off against the Bucanneers.

🏀 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!

How will they look after a small layoff/post-Thanksgiving?

UConn head coach Dan Hurley went viral this week when he shared that his team would have Thanksgiving on Wednesday instead of Thursday, so that they wouldn’t come out sluggish in their top-15 matchup with Illinois on Friday. He was adamant that tryptophan, which is found in turkey, makes you sleepy, and he doesn’t want that to be the case for the Huskies.

All that being said, South Carolina’s Thanksgiving plans will likely be a lot more normal compared to what Hurley has in mind. However, it will be interesting to see how the Gamecocks will perform the day after a major holiday, especially one that is primarily about enjoying a good meal.

South Carolina has only played on Black Friday once under head coach Lamont Paris. That was back in 2022 when the Gamecocks picked up a 68-53 win over USC Upstate.

They’ll also be coming off a bit of a small layoff after their winless weekend in the Greenbrier Tip-Off. They suffered losses to Butler and Northwestern and haven’t played since Sunday. So that should also be factored in when evaluating how the team looks on Friday afternoon.

This should be a game that South Carolina wins without much issue. The Bucanneers are 5-3 on the year with a 31-point loss to Virginia Tech to open the season. As long as the Gamecocks play the way they’re supposed to, they should be able to get back in the win column.

Get GamecockCentral for $1 your first week. As a bonus, your membership includes a complimentary year of The Athletic.

Find that shooting stroke

There are several reasons why things went as they did at The Greenbrier last weekend. However, it’s safe to say that if South Carolina had made a few more shots in each game, it could’ve potentially come away with two wins instead of two losses.

The Gamecocks shot 43.1 percent from the field and 28.3 percent from three-point range. It’s now been three straight games of shooting less than 30 percent from beyond the arc. For a team whose offense is so predicated on three-pointers, they aren’t nearly making enough of them to win.

South Carolina shouldn’t need to make a record number of threes to beat Charleston Southern. But it’s not even just that; it needs to have a game where shots are going in from all over the floor. It hosts Virginia Tech next Tuesday, and that needs to be a game where it’s shooting well, or else it could be like last weekend all over again.

Which version of Elijah Strong shows up?

It’s been an up-and-down start to the season for Elijah Strong. One game he’s solid, the next he struggles to make shots and turns into a liability. That’s been his season to this point.

Strong is coming off a great game where he had a team-leading 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting against Northwestern on Sunday. He also had five rebounds, four assists, and two steals. However, that was coming off a game in which he had three points on 1-of-7 shooting with two rebounds.

Here are his point totals through six games: 11, 0, 4, 15, 3, 16. If he’s not making shots, that’s only hurting the team since his defense has been a bit of an issue at times.

Strong has been coming off the bench to start the year and averaging 16.7 minutes per game. There are enough shooters on this team, so he doesn’t have to always be their leading scorer. But if he can get into more of a consistent rhythm of providing solid minutes, he could become a real weapon for the Gamecocks.

The Insiders Forum: Discuss South Carolina basketball!