Gamecocks and Bulldogs on the harwood in the Colonial Center tonight as South Carolina State visits South Carolina. Tip-off is at 7:00EST and you can catch it on FSN-CAR. The Gamecocks come in at 8-4 overall. The Bulldogs have a record of 4-8.

The Gamecocks RPI is #122 and the Bulldogs are ranked at #342.

Here is a quick preview of the game...

By now you know the South Carolina Gamecocks lost badly to the Boston College Eagles in Columbia over the weekend by the score of 85-70.  Don't let the 15 point margin fool you as the Gamecocks never really had a shot due to poor inside play and lights out shooting from the Eagles.

The Eagles shot 51%, but their defense was the big factor, limiting the Gamecocks to 38%. Boston College came down with many more defensive rebounds, 33 to 19, and that created more scoring opportunities.  In a simple way of putting it...USC flat out got outplayed.

Let's provide some more insight on this game...

The University of South Carolina (8-3), fresh off a win versus Jacksonville State, will put the seven game home winning streak on the line versus the Boston College Eagles (10-3) tonight in Columbia, SC.

The Coach Horn led boys need this win on their resume heading into SEC play as the BC Eagles have a #23 RPI ranking.  Last year, the Eagles played the Gamecocks hard and won 85-76. 

Let's provide you a quick look at the two teams and offer you what we feel is the keys to the game for USC...

The Gamecocks from South Carolina defeated the Gamecocks of Jacksonville State by the score of 56-49 in Columbia.  It was a much needed win to close out 2010 for USC and move their overall record to 8-3 and 7-0 at home.  The Gamecocks were led by Ramon Galloway in scoring as he put in 15 points on 41% shooting in 23 minutes, including 12 from three point range.  Also South Carolina got better production from Sam Muldrow, which is a positive to build from going forward with the BC Eagles coming to town on Jan. 1st to kickoff 2011.

Let's break this game down a bit further ---

The South Carolina Gamecocks (7-3) will take on the Jacksonville State Gamecocks (2-11) at 7 PM tonight in Columbia.  One thing is for sure...the Gamecocks will win.  To be specific the South Carolina kind of Gamecocks should walk away with this win tonight as JSU has lost five straight games and word is their leading scorer is stuck in New York due to snow.

Let's take a look at how they stack up -

South Carolina (7-3) loses to Furman (8-2) Wednesday night at Timmons Arena in Greenville by the score of 91-75.  No joke as this is not a laughing matter.  Losing to the Paladins is unacceptable no matter the youth of the USC team or how good Furman played in the game.

The Gamecocks lost a game they were expected to win. South Carolina had a much better RPI ranking, #80 to #197. Last year, South Carolina won 81-57.

This was the second poor outing for USC after a bad showing against the #2 team - Ohio State.

Why the losses?

Three deadly combos...poor rebounding as a team, poor ball movement overall and overall poor shot selection. 

The bad and ugly:
- Furman won the rebounding battle with a 44-26 margin.
- The Gamecocks set a season high for three pointers.
- USC set season lows for assists, steals, and rebounds.
- South Carolina has recorded fewer free throws made than their opponents for the past 7 games.
- Muldrow - 6 points?  Seriously?
- Furman had 13 Offensive Rebounds.

The Only Good:
The play of Bruce Ellington as he tallied a team season high in three pointers with 6, points with 31, field goals made with 11, field goals attempted with 23, and three pointers attempted with 13.  Bruce Ellington has led the team in scoring in 4 out of 10 games this season.  In this game, Bruce Ellington accounted for 41.3% of the team's points and this outing marks the 3rd 20-point game of Bruce Ellington's young career.

Opinion Time: South Carolina must learn the art of boxing out going forward and crash the boards.  The Gamecocks must also move the ball around better not just make perimeter passes but try to work the ball into the inside (maybe some high-low plays) and not just rely on the long ball.  Ellington and Richardson can not carry the team but they also must work the ball around to the open man.  USC had 9 assists.  That is a problem.  Lastly, the Gamecocks must get better play from the players down low or it is going to be a season that was 'so-so' to a bad one.

Up next: Gamecocks v. Gamecocks as Jacksonville State will come to Columbia on December 29th.

This Gamecocks blog weighes in each week on who the best is in NCAA basketball land in the "Bloguin Fab Four Plus One" feature ran by our pals over at Hoops Manifesto, which is a great basketball blog.  This week not much changes in our ballot as no one has lost and the best is still the best.  Rankings are who we see as the best four teams in Amercia and the best non-BCS school.

Here is the finall results of the poll ->  HERE

Here is our ballot:

1. Duke
Coach K is giving the haters much to hate.
 
2.  Ohio State
Sullinger and the Buckeyes are strong defensively and on the inside.  Two deadly combos.  Made easy work of my Gamecocks.
 
3. Kansas
Had a Trojan scare but battled hard to get the win with great play from Selby who lived up to the hype.
 
4.  Syracuse
Survived a Iona scare which was a surprise but played well as a team.  Will be interesting to see how this team does against other Big East foes.
 
Non-BCS Team that is the Best
 
San Diego State
They simply find ways to win.  Not pretty but a win is a win.

The South Carolina Gamecocks were simply not up to the test against the #2 Ohio State Buckeyes.  OSU's Jared Sullinger, with 30 points and 19 rebounds, was too much for the inside game of South Carolina.  Behind his efforts and poor shooting by SC, Carolina was defeated by the score of 79-57 in Columbus, OH.

Sam Muldrow scored 14 points and Malik Cooke 13 for South Carolina (7-2), whose only losses this season have come against second-ranked Big Ten teams. The Gamecocks lost 82-73 at then-No. 2 Michigan State on Nov. 16.

What lead to the defeat:  Poor shooting for USC as they shot 38 percent from the field as Carolina could not work the ball inside for higher percentage shots.  They had to depend on outside shooting rather than inside the paint.  Take that with a cold hand and you can see the result.  Also Carolina shot 3-7 in free throws, whereas the Buckeyes were 21-28.  See the difference?  Also the Gamecocks were outrebounded by OSU and gave the Buckeyes too many second chance points.  Take all this and 15 turnovers and you have yourself a defeat.

Positives for South Carolina:  Sam Muldrow is beginning to realize that he has to step up his game on the offense side of the ball.  In the first half he was quiet but came on strong in the second half.  Here is his stat line - 14 Pts, 8 Reb, 2 Stl, 2 Blk.  Nice work but needs help in producing and for this team known for multiple scorers carry the load, it was not there on Saturday.

Quote from the Coach that sums it up: Coach Horn on the game....“I think we took this game knowing it would be a great challenge and we found out a lot about our team,” Horn said on his post-game radio show. “I think we did. Today was an old fashioned whipping from a veteran team that did the little things. We were a team that did not do the little things we needed to do to be in a game like this. But it will be a tremendous learning experience and we’ll get better from it moving forward.”

Notes about this Game: 

On Saturday, December 18 at 2:00 pm, the South Carolina Gamecocks basketball team will take on the #2 ranked Ohio State Buckeye's at Value City Arena.   Currently, the Buckeye's are 9-0 and are lead by freshman sensation Jared Sullinger.  This will be the second match up this season for the Gamecocks against a Big 10 elite program.  The first match up was against Michigan State back on November 16, where the Gamecocks came up short 82-73. 

Let's break this game down gy The Numbers and offer a short preview:   

The Ohio State:                                                                        USC: 
 Scoring:            Jared Sullinger  17.2 PPG                              Bruce Ellington 13.4 PPG
                           David Lighty      12.5 PPG                            Lakeem Jackson 9.8 PPG                

The South Carolina Gamecocks are fresh off a win against Wofford for their seventh win of the young 2010-11 season but it seems they will need to continue to win as their RPI is not strong to start the season.  Coach Horn's squad is currently ranked 94th in RPI rankings and USC's strength of schedule sits at 262.

I expect both key rankings to improve as the season continues, especially with conference play in a few weeks, but still interesting to look at compared to the other SEC schools.

Here are the RPI and SOS for SEC schools as of 12/13/10 from RealTimeRPI.com ---