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Re: 3-3-10
DAVID MALINSKY
4* SOUTH CAROLINA/ALABAMA UNDER 136.5
An ugly grinder of a pace, and perhaps even uglier execution, makes it difficult for the scoreboard to change very often (except for the ticking clock), and that is the case in this one.
We have picked up a lot of mileage of late either playing against South Carolina, or playing Gamecock games Under, as fatigue takes its inevitable toll on one-man-gang Devan Downey. He is now up to 948 minutes overall, and 512 for 14 S.E.C. games, and the wheels have come off – over the last five games he has shot just 35-107 from the field, and it has been an 0-5 SU and ATS Carolina in which the Gamecocks could score more than 63 points only one time, a 92-79 loss at Arkansas in which things got real loose in the latter stages. Now Downey has to go up against a physical Alabama defense that does an excellent job on the perimeter (allowing only 30.4 percent beyond the arc in conference play, with only 151 assists allowed in those 14 games), which can make for another long evening. And of course when he does not score, the team does not.
Alabama is only 4-10 in the S.E.C. despite playing that solid defense because the Crimson Tide are every bit as hard-pressed to score as Carolina. Now it gets even tougher without JaMychal Green (14.8 ppg), taking away the only real inside threat, and that leaves Mikhail Torrance as the only player averaging in double figures. So what happens when two offenses playing without confidence or balance go head to head? The game slows down. With the role players for these teams hesitant to step up and take shots we get a lot of long and empty possessions here, and neither team has the explosiveness to create the kind of runs that can speed things up.
DAVID MALINSKY
4* SOUTH CAROLINA/ALABAMA UNDER 136.5
An ugly grinder of a pace, and perhaps even uglier execution, makes it difficult for the scoreboard to change very often (except for the ticking clock), and that is the case in this one.
We have picked up a lot of mileage of late either playing against South Carolina, or playing Gamecock games Under, as fatigue takes its inevitable toll on one-man-gang Devan Downey. He is now up to 948 minutes overall, and 512 for 14 S.E.C. games, and the wheels have come off – over the last five games he has shot just 35-107 from the field, and it has been an 0-5 SU and ATS Carolina in which the Gamecocks could score more than 63 points only one time, a 92-79 loss at Arkansas in which things got real loose in the latter stages. Now Downey has to go up against a physical Alabama defense that does an excellent job on the perimeter (allowing only 30.4 percent beyond the arc in conference play, with only 151 assists allowed in those 14 games), which can make for another long evening. And of course when he does not score, the team does not.
Alabama is only 4-10 in the S.E.C. despite playing that solid defense because the Crimson Tide are every bit as hard-pressed to score as Carolina. Now it gets even tougher without JaMychal Green (14.8 ppg), taking away the only real inside threat, and that leaves Mikhail Torrance as the only player averaging in double figures. So what happens when two offenses playing without confidence or balance go head to head? The game slows down. With the role players for these teams hesitant to step up and take shots we get a lot of long and empty possessions here, and neither team has the explosiveness to create the kind of runs that can speed things up.
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