Published Jan 31, 2020
Getting to know the opponent: Missouri
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Collyn Taylor  •  GamecockScoop
Beat Writer
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@collyntaylor

The Gamecocks are coming off one of their best wins of the season on the road against Arkansas and now start a pivotal stretch to gain some ground in the SEC.

It starts Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against Missouri, a troublesome team that has the talent to come in and pull off a win against the Gamecocks.

Before Saturday's matchup, here's a look at what's coming into Colonial Life Arena.

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The skinny: Missouri is a team that's struggled for stretches of time but also has a few really solid wins on its resume as well. The Tigers beat Illinois, a top 25 team, in non-conference play then demolished Florida by 26 points at home.

They'd promptly lose four straight games to Mississippi State, Alabama, Texas A&M and West Virginia.

It's a team similar to South Carolina in terms of offensive and defensive efficiency but is a worse shooting team. The Tigers are a very young team but longer that plays a bunch of guys with bench players logging almost 35 percent of available minutes.

Also see: What we learned from Wednesday's big win

The Tigers play incredibly slow, averaging roughly 66 possessions per game, two below the Division I average and are the 11th-slowest team in conference play this season but have a few solid wins, including coming back from 20 points down to beat Georgia Tuesday.

Missouri is a very opportunistic team and has the talent and ability to beat South Carolina if things break right.

KenPom prediction: The Gamecocks (12-8, 4-3 SEC) are given a 65 percent chance to win by KenPom with the site predicting a 72-67 Razorback win in Columbia.

What they do well: In SEC play, Missouri is probably one of the best teams in forcing turnovers and limiting turnovers offensively. They're best in the conference in turnover rate, forcing 14.5 turnovers per game and 7.1 steals over their last eight games.

They lead the SEC in steal percentage and it leads to a lot of open court opportunities, which can keep the Tigers in games.

They also shoot 77.3 percent from the line, something that could come back to bite a foul-happy South Carolina team. On the season, the Tigers' three-point defense has been pretty good, ranking No. 32 in the country in opponent three-point percentage at just 29.8 percent. They're shooting 33.9 percent from three in SEC play, which is fourth-highest.

They live and die by the three with 32.9 percent of their points coming by the three, which is above average. They have almost 37 percent of their points in SEC by the three, the highest among all 14 teams.

Also see: What we learned from Wednesday's big win

They are best in the SEC in forcing turnovers, though.

It's a solid defensive team on the season as a whole (although those numbers have dipped in conference play) but it's a team that could ultimately force bad shots.

What they don't do well: For as good as Missouri has been at times defensively, its offensive shooting percentages haven't been great. The Tigers have the 236th-highest effective field goal percentage this season, and are shooting just 31.1 percent from three and 48.9 percent from two.

In SEC play, they're 11th in effective field goal percentage, dead last in two-point percentage and 13th in offensive turnover rate.

Defensively the numbers have dipped with the team allowing teams to shoot 35.9 percent from three, 53.7 percent from two and aren't protecting the ball over at as high of a rate as they were in the beginning of the season.

It's a team that's dipped, in part because they played a few good teams, in shooting percentages and haven't defending the ball as well as they did earlier in the season as well.

Also see: The latest on ZaQuandre White

Player to watch: Dru Smith, G

This is Missouri's go-to player, especially in SEC play, with Smith leading the team in points per game this season at 11.8 but he's also averaging almost 14 points in SEC play.

The Tigers use him a lot, being used in almost 23 percent of possessions in conference games, and he spends the majority of the time running the point guard role or playing at the two-guard.

He takes a lot of shots (averaging 9.3 field goals per game in SEC play) and is shooting 43.1 percent and 42.9 percent from three while averaging four assists, 2.6 steals and 2.6 turnovers per game.

Xavier Pinson also handles some point guard duties and it'll be interesting to see which Gamecock starter—AJ Lawson or Jermaine Couisnard—gets this defensive assignment because they've had problems guarding the ball on the perimeter this season.