2024-25 Indiana non-conference opponent preview: South Carolina

  • Jul 29, 2024 7:33 am in

Indiana’s 2024-25 non-conference schedule was finalized on July 9 and Inside the Hall will have a team-by-team look at each opponent. Today: South Carolina.

South Carolina is the lone high-major opponent on Indiana’s home non-conference schedule and will visit Bloomington on Saturday, November 16.

It will be the fourth meeting between the two programs and the first since November 1998, when Indiana beat South Carolina 76-55 in Indianapolis. The other two meetings came in the early 1970s, with IU falling 88-85 in Columbia in December 1972 and the Hoosiers prevailing 84-71 in December 1973.

The contest between IU and South Carolina is not part of a home-and-home as the Hoosiers will not make a return trip to Columbia. According to the game contract, Indiana is not compensating South Carolina for the contest. The Hoosiers are paying $100,000 per game to the other seven non-conference home opponents on the 2024-25 schedule.

The Gamecocks are coming off a highly successful 2023-24 season, which included earning a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament. South Carolina won 26 games but fell to Oregon 87-73 in the first round of March Madness in Pittsburgh.

South Carolina finished last season ranked No. 54 in the final KenPom ratings and No. 50 in Bart Torvik. In Torvik’s 2024-25 season projections, the Gamecocks are ranked No. 54.

Lamont Paris, a former longtime assistant at Wisconsin who coached five seasons at Chattanooga, is entering his third season as South Carolina’s head coach. Despite a rough 2022-23 campaign, Paris has compiled a solid 37-29 record over two seasons. He was named the SEC coach of the year last season.

Like many programs, the Gamecocks experienced plenty of roster turnover in the offseason. Three of the program’s top four scorers from last season are gone.

The leading returnee is 6-foot-7 forward Collin Murray-Boyles, who averaged 10.4 points, 5.7 rebounds and had a team-high 28 blocked shots as a freshman.

Two other returnees expected to take on larger roles are wing Myles Stute and guard Jacobi Wright. The 6-foot-6 Stute started 17 games last season and averaged 8.3 points and 3.3 rebounds in 23.5 minutes per game. A 6-foot-2 guard, Wright played in all 34 games and averaged 5.9 points on just 36.1 percent shooting from the field.

Zachary Davis, a 6-foot-7 forward, also returns after making 17 starts last season. Davis averaged 5.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 22.9 minutes per game.

The Gamecocks added three transfers in Norfolk State guard Jamarii Thomas, Alabama big man Nick Pringle and Missouri big man Jordan Butler.

The 6-foot Thomas is likely to start at the point after averaging 16.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.1 steals last season at Norfolk State. He also shot 38 percent on 3s.

Pringle is a 6-foot-10 graduate student who averaged 6.8 points and 5.1 rebounds for the Crimson Tide’s Final Four team last season. Butler, a 7-footer, started 14 times last season at Missouri and averaged 2.3 points and two rebounds in just over 11 minutes per game.

Freshman guard Cam Scott, the No. 36 player in the final 247Composite rankings for the 2024 class, should play right away. The Lexington, South Carolina native was a major recruiting win for Paris. Scott chose South Carolina over Oregon, Texas and several others.

From a style of play perspective, South Carolina resembles Wisconsin, given Paris’s background with that program. The Gamecocks ranked 351st nationally last season in adjusted tempo. Four of Paris’s seven teams as a head coach have ranked outside the top 300 nationally in adjusted tempo, according to KenPom.

In Torvik’s current projections, South Carolina is slated to have the 51st-best offense and 62nd-best defense nationally next season. Most early projections don’t have South Carolina as an NCAA tournament team next season. However, this matchup should still provide the Hoosiers a chance for a Quad 2 win on their resume, which is unlikely to be the case for the seven other non-conference foes coming to Assembly Hall.

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