South-Carolina

Xs and Oats: South Carolina is the most paradoxical team on the SEC road schedule

Published

1 year ago

January 7, 2025

Xs and Oats: South Carolina is the most paradoxical team on the SEC road schedule

For a variety of reasons, basketball is the most difficult of the Big Four North American sports in which to notch a road win. Mercurial performances between home and away games are the norm as often as not. (FWIW, the most recent data from last January pegged the chances of picking up a road win at 31%). That’s why teams like Indiana and UCLA can get pimped in Lincoln by the thoroughly average Cornhuskers, and then that same Nebraska team can lose by 37 to Michigan State (which actually happened this year). Teams often stand on their head at home and are able to score seemingly-improbable upsets.

But fresh off a defenestration of No. 12 Oklahoma that was so thorough it would make Russian oil tycoons nervous, the No. 5 Crimson Tide travel to South Carolina to face one of (perhaps the) most baffling team on its SEC road schedule. Because these ‘Cocks can play well enough to beat 12-3 Clemson, yet are simultaneously bad enough to lose four games with the 271st ranked SOS, including to North Florida (7-8, No. 217). And do both at home.

Let’s take a look at USCe and what the Tide can expect to see Wednesday when it opens SEC road play.

Tale of the Tape: No. 74 South Carolina (10-4) vs No. 5 Alabama (12-2)

Preliminary Spread (certainly subject to change): Alabama -16.5 (O/U 153.5)

Opponent KenPom: 74 (103 offense, 65 defense, 259 tempo)
Opponent Evan Miya: 78 (101 offense, 69 defense, 266 tempo)
Opponent Bart Torvik: 93 (137 offense, 79 defense, 190 tempo)
Opponent NET: 93 (Q2)
Opponent RPI: 54
Opponent Best KenPom Win: Clemson (32)
Opponent Worst KenPom Loss: North Florida (217)

UA Ken Pom: 9th (5 Off, 44th Defense, 5th Tempo)
UA Evan Miya: 7th (3 Off, 25th Defense, 1st Tempo)
UA Bart Torvik: 7 (4 Off, 34th Defense, 4th Tempo)
UA NET Ranking: 9 (7-2 Q1/2)
UA RPI: 3
UA Best KenPom Win: No. 4 (N) Houston
UA Worst KenPom Loss: No. 26 at Purdue

You’d like to be able to point to any one thing for the Gamecocks and say “That! That is what they do well.” But, the problem is, outside of getting to the free throw line, there’s absolutely nothing about South Carolina — offensively or defensively — that takes them out of average-to-sometimes-bad territory. But, if you were going to hesitantly pin any label on USC, it would “team that is defined by its post play, with a lot of asterisks.”

If “almost” were a team, it would be South Carolina. They are almost good at stuff without truly being good in any one area.

As we saw last week with Oklahoma, the Gamecocks run a five-out system, with Lamont Paris emphasizing “action with pace.” The problem is, the USC guards are good enough of a shooting threat to put some pressure on opposing backcourts — but there’s no true must-guard perimeter player: three guys shoot right at average, with only sixth man Morris Ugusk well above that.
It’s a team that minimizes turnovers, and leans into defense — while at the same time not being very good at forcing turnovers and being merely average in both floor and perimeter defense.
It it a team that does its best work when it feeds the two forwards out of a painfully slow offense — while not being a good offensive rebounding club.
It is a team that does an outstanding job of getting to the free throw line (perhaps their biggest strength) — while also being a terrible free throw shooting team and sending opposing shooters to the line far too often.

There’s no balance, certainly no pace, and too often USC finds itself playing a two-man screen-and-roll game, praying for an easy bucket in the post or a trip to the line. However, it’s also a risky strategy, one that affords little room for error. And when it’s just not panning out, when opponents are cleaning up on the glass or not sending USC to the stripe, there’s not enough firepower to shoot USCe back into the game.

So they are almost good at a lot of stuff, and on any given night, USC can be a competent basketball team. But is is a team of generalists trying to win with ugly basketball and marginal talent, which means that they have to win by drawing fouls, making opponents play their pace, and trying to keep the score in the low 70s. In fact, that is the magic number: USC has not lost a game where they have hit 71 points.

All of this has resulted in a first for the Tide this year. South Carolina is the only Alabama opponent to-date to under-play its schedule. Depending on your analytical service of choice, the Gamecocks are 1 to 2.3 games below their expected win total. And that shows in the results too. They’re 1-3 against T1 and T2 opponents vs. their very soft schedule, and even picked up a loss to a T4. For the Tide, this will be a Q2 NET opponent solely because it is on the road, but based on the first third of the season, USC will flirt with the 90s in NET all year. And that assumes they hold serve against some of the conference’s weaker opponents (Missouri, LSU, perhaps Vanderbilt, etc.).

You want to at least be complimentary of Nick Pringle’s new team. And Lamont Paris is a genuinely likable guy. But this club reminds you a lot of Ben Howland’s Mississippi State squads: all-defense with little counterpunch…though with less individual talent (taken as a whole).

Key Personnel

USC’s offense is driven by the forwards on a team that will be one of the smallest the Tide face all season.

Hometown sophomore Collin Murray-Boyles is having a great season, leading USC in floor shooting by a wide margin (61.7%), scoring (15.8), rebounds (9.4), blocks (1.4), and is second behind only PG Jamarii Thomas in assists (2.5). The biggest knock on CMB is that he’s really gimpy, and will turn it over a bunch. Per-touch, he leads the Gamecocks in TO rate, and in raw terms averages 3 a night. But in that same Gamecock paradox we’ve seen almost across the board, he’s also a good on-ball defender, and has nimble klepto skills.

He’s joined in the frontcourt by the ever-energetic Nick Pringle. The former ‘Bama F finally got the minutes and starting job he was after, and he’s making the most of it. Pringle is USC’s third leading scorer (10.5), and second in rebounding and blocks. He’s cut down on his turnovers too from those reckless ‘Bama years, and is having a solid all-around season. How good? He’s almost 2:1 assist-to-turnovers on the year. Good for him. We love Pringle. And while CMB is probably going to get the most attention, Pringle is the best interior defender for USC, and you can bet he’s going to sell-out to stop Alabama’s post game.

Among the guards, the man to watch is PG Jamarii Thomas. He leads the Gamecocks in minutes played, assists, steals, and is second in scoring. He’s the most valuable ballhandler and small defender on the team, and one of four players in their thin rotation that all shoot around 35-36% from the perimeter.

Zachary Davis is their Little Engine That Could, and the best rebounder of the bunch. While a limited offensive player, he’s very physical and hammers the glass on a team that is relatively poor at chasing their misses. Meanwhile, Jacobi Wright is probably USC’s second-best overall guard in terms of ballhandling, perimeter shooting, defense, and distribution. Weirdly, for a combo guard, he’s pretty awful from the free throw line (sub-70%). But that’s not out of the ordinary for the Gamecocks: among the starters, the “best” shoots just 77% on a team that is sub-70% overall. Yuck.

The Gamecocks only go eight deep (seven, most nights), and their bench scoring is even more limited than the starting rotation. It’s the worst in the SEC, and in the bottom third nationally, with just 28% of their scoring coming from guys 6-13.

CMB and Jamarii will be the defensive focus, without doubt.

How To Watch

Wednesday, Jan 8, 6:00 Central SEC Network

Prediction

The biggest threat to the Tide in this game is losing focus. USC is not a great shooting team, though it has some competent shooters. It’s not a great rebounding team overall, but it’s a high-energy team. It’s not a sloppy team, and it has limited weapons, but it will try to force its style of play, bleed clock, and make Alabama get impatient.

Consider this a trial balloon for what we will see much of the season. This is going to be the first of many games where the opponent tries to drag Alabama into a mudwrestling contest, bleed the clock, and take the air out of the ball. It’s up to the Tide to not get the big head, not get frustrated, and then make the most of their offensive opportunities — even if they have to shoot 30 free throws to get there. If Alabama leverages size and speed, and if they put forth some of that defensive energy we saw the first half of Oklahoma, this could be a rare road rout.

Alabama 84
South Carolina 65

Hope for the best.
Roll Tide.

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South-Carolina

Clyburn’s redistricting win fuels SC’s pitch to keep early primary position. An army of influencers are helping.

Published

9 hours ago

May 31, 2026

Press Room

Clyburn’s redistricting win fuels SC’s pitch to keep early primary position. An army of influencers are helping.

Congressman Jim Clyburn holds his hand over his heart during the singing of the national anthem at the South Carolina Democratic Party’s Blue Palmetto fundraising dinner in Columbia, SC at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds on May 29, 2026.

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Jack Bradshaw / Special to The Post and Courier

COLUMBIA — Congressman Jim Clyburn’s annual fish fry, now in its 34th year, is considered one of those can’t-miss dates on South Carolina’s political calendar.

Beyond its role as prelude to the following day’s Democratic convention, it’s an opportunity for the common folk — unable to afford the fee for the party’s annual fundraising dinner — to rub shoulders with both the powerful and wannabe powerful: city council candidates, state representatives, even future candidates for president.

It also serves as a barometer of the party’s energy for the upcoming election cycle to assess the party’s chances up and down the ballot in a state Republicans have dominated for the better part of the past quarter-century.

This year’s felt different.

The convention, an occasionally dry affair, was raucous, with brass bands and deafening crowds that simply weren’t present in recent years. The fish fry, always crowded, was packed wall-to-wall, while the convention was so well-attended that there weren’t enough chairs for all the attendees — the $2 per chair rental cost threatening the party’s already stressed convention budget.

The difference wasn’t a matter of star power, even with potential 2028 hopefuls in Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and California Congressman Ro Khanna in attendance.

Recent speakers like vice presidential candidate Tim Walz and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who spoke in 2025, earned enthusiasm but not as much. Even renowned orators like New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker, one of two presidential hopefuls to make the trip to Columbia for the event in 2024 alongside Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, didn’t see as much enthusiasm ahead of a presidential election where Democrats lost the popular vote for the first time since 2004.

It was about belief in the message, a belief Clyburn said was lacking two years ago. The night of that year’s election, Clyburn said, he received a phone call asking him when he planned to arrive back in Washington for then-candidate Kamala Harris’ victory party.

Clyburn, in response, was blunt: “I’m not coming to Washington,” he said at the time, “because I don’t think there’s going to be a victory party.”

“It was simply because I do not believe that people have emotionally bought into our campaign,” he added. “That’s what I think it’s going to take for us, to run a campaign that people will buy into emotionally. People can hear the words, but they’ve gotta feel it.”

An attendee waves during the South Carolina Democratic Party’s annual convention in Columbia, SC on May 30, 2026.

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Jack Bradshaw / Special to The Post and Courier

A vibe shift

Democrats say they’ve got something to believe in this year.

A recent Republican-led effort to redraw the state’s congressional maps to eliminate Clyburn’s seat earlier in the week had failed, driven largely by massive Democratic turnout at the start of early voting credited with giving statehouse Republicans cold feet to continue. State legislative seats around the country had begun to flip, while South Carolina Democrats in recent special elections in areas like Dorchester and Sumter Counties have outperformed expected margins.

And as the Democratic National Committee meets in the coming months to reconsider South Carolina’s place in the presidential nominating calendar for 2028, a state party that recently reached superminority status in the statehouse now seems like a place worth watching again.

Beshear, a Democratic governor in a state that voted for Trump by a two-to-one margin in 2024, told reporters he believed South Carolina should be “the first of what I think should be two southern states” in the opening group of four early primary states. Khanna, a potential presidential candidate who has maintained a frequent presence in South Carolina, upped the ante, saying recent on-the-ground events should “settle the question” of South Carolina’s role in the calendar.

“South Carolina should be the first state in the South with the DNC,” Khanna told reporters. “I don’t even see how, after what they have done, that this can be an open question.”

But the South Carolina Democratic Party still has to demonstrate they deserve it.

Throughout the weekend, the party enlisted the help of a small army of social media influencers to help sell the message, recording the weekend festivities and interviewing candidates to share with their followings.

It’s a new program, started in December 2025 as part of the party’s outreach efforts, and is currently unpaid, meant primarily as an effort to glean neutral commentary from creators with pre-existing audiences who simply want to help Democrats win. It’s also a means of humanizing party messaging many may perceive as overly polished, or inauthentic, allowing non-political consumers to better understand or buy into the messages candidates are selling them.

“As influencers we build relationships with the people that follow us,” said Tabatha Andonian, a Fort Mill activist who built an audience in part by her work tracking ICE agents in Charlotte last year. “They trust us.”

Selling the party

The project also has a purpose, part of a growing trend among party leaders in response to the massive leveraging of social media personalities by Republicans in the years after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Donald Trump’s White House, for example, has begun incorporating sympathetic content creators into its rotating press pool in part of an effort to reach new audiences, while national Democrats for several years have begun paid influencer programs to get their messages out.

South Carolina is looking to follow suit. While redistricting helped inspire voters, the message was spread to voters directly by social media personalities across the state, helping get the message to vote early out to thousands of people who might not otherwise have tracked the redistricting debate through traditional media.

Zackary Kirk Dem Convention.jpg — Advertisement

Zackory Kirk, a social media influencer from Atlanta, GA, films content during the South Carolina Democratic Party’s annual convention in Columbia, SC on May 30, 2026.

Nick Reynolds / Staff Photo

“The way politics has been done forever has been ‘let’s spend millions of dollars to pay a corporation owned by billionaires to air a commercial to one specific demographic 35 times a day,’ instead of, ‘Hey, let’s invest in people who are actually part of the community and can reach people,’” comedian Steve Hofstetter, a participant in the program who counts millions of followers across his social media platforms, told The Post and Courier at the convention. “I think that makes a lot more sense.”

It also serves a practical purpose for the party itself. The content generated over the weekend, the party’s creator director and Barack Obama campaign alum Michael Ceraso told The Post and Courier, would likely become part of the party’s pitch to the DNC in the coming weeks, while also serving as a means of communicating the upsides of South Carolina’s nuanced Democratic electorate to party leaders and the public.

Zackory Kirk, an Atlanta-based content creator with a sizeable Instagram following, told The Post and Courier he believed the electorate of places like South Carolina, rather than his home state of Georgia, could help nominate the type of candidate who could survive in a general election environment, able to appeal to rural and urban voters in ways more cosmopolitan candidates could not.

Georgia, a battleground state, has often been raised as a national focus for the party’s efforts to win in the South. But it’s hard for people to learn what South Carolina is capable of, he said, if they aren’t able to see for themselves.

“As much as I love Georgia — it’s home, right? — I don’t want Atlanta to pick the Democratic nominee,” he said. “Atlanta is a microcosm; it’s a small place, it’s unique, but it’s not representative of America in the way that South Carolina is representative now.”

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South-Carolina

South Carolina Lottery Powerball, Pick 3 results for May 30, 2026

Published

19 hours ago

May 31, 2026

Press Room

South Carolina Lottery Powerball, Pick 3 results for May 30, 2026

The South Carolina Education Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big.

Here’s a look at May 30, 2026, results for each game:

Winning Powerball numbers from May 30 drawing

01-27-35-44-52, Powerball: 12, Power Play: 2

Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Pick 3 Plus FIREBALL numbers from May 30 drawing

Midday: 1-3-8, FB: 9

Evening: 7-1-4, FB: 4

Check Pick 3 Plus FIREBALL payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Pick 4 Plus FIREBALL numbers from May 30 drawing

Midday: 7-1-9-2, FB: 9

Evening: 1-2-3-3, FB: 4

Check Pick 4 Plus FIREBALL payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Cash Pop numbers from May 30 drawing

Midday: 09

Evening: 04

Check Cash Pop payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Palmetto Cash 5 numbers from May 30 drawing

07-14-15-18-29

Check Palmetto Cash 5 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Powerball Double Play numbers from May 30 drawing

04-27-65-66-69, Powerball: 04

Check Powerball Double Play payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your lottery prize

The South Carolina Education Lottery provides multiple ways to claim prizes, depending on the amount won:

For prizes up to $500, you can redeem your winnings directly at any authorized South Carolina Education Lottery retailer. Simply present your signed winning ticket at the retailer for an immediate payout.

Winnings $501 to $100,000, may be redeemed by mailing your signed winning ticket along with a completed claim form and a copy of a government-issued photo ID to the South Carolina Education Lottery Claims Center. For security, keep copies of your documents and use registered mail to ensure the safe arrival of your ticket.

SC Education Lottery

P.O. Box 11039

Columbia, SC 29211-1039

For large winnings above $100,000, claims must be made in person at the South Carolina Education Lottery Headquarters in Columbia. To claim, bring your signed winning ticket, a completed claim form, a government-issued photo ID, and your Social Security card for identity verification. Winners of large prizes may also set up an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) for convenient direct deposit of winnings.

Columbia Claims Center

1303 Assembly Street

Columbia, SC 29201

Claim Deadline: All prizes must be claimed within 180 days of the draw date for draw games.

For more details and to access the claim form, visit the South Carolina Lottery claim page.

When are the South Carolina Lottery drawings held?

Powerball: 10:59 p.m. ET on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
Mega Millions: 11 p.m. ET on Tuesday and Friday.
Pick 3: Daily at 12:59 p.m. (Midday) and 6:59 p.m. (Evening).
Pick 4: Daily at 12:59 p.m. (Midday) and 6:59 p.m. (Evening).
Cash Pop: Daily at 12:59 p.m. (Midday) and 6:59 p.m. (Evening).
Palmetto Cash 5: 6:59 p.m. ET daily.

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a South Carolina editor. You can send feedback using this form.

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South-Carolina

South Carolina Democrats celebrate redistricting win as governor hopefuls clash

Published

1 day ago

May 30, 2026

Press Room

South Carolina Democrats celebrate redistricting win as governor hopefuls clash

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WACH) — Hundreds of South Carolina Democrats gathered at the State Fairgrounds on Saturday for the party’s annual convention, rallying supporters, hearing from candidates and celebrating what they called a major political win.

The event brought together candidates, elected officials, party activists and voters ahead of what many hope will be a competitive election cycle.

Party leaders and attendees praised the recent failure of a Republican-led redistricting proposal in the state Senate, calling it a victory for fair representation.

“I’m happy that the people responded with clear heads. I’m happy that we will have a fair and free election, and we’re maintaining our democracy in the state. I’m from Cluburn’s District. I’m from Colleton County South Carolina so this is personal to me,” said DeShawn Blanding, a candidate for South Carolina commissioner of agriculture.

Dr. Annie Andrews, a candidate for U.S. Senate, said, “That was a win for democracy people like to say it was a win for Democrats. Yes it was but it was a win for democracy. South Carolina has 40% Democrats. We deserve some representation in our congressional delegation.”

Mayra Rivera-Vázquez, a candidate for South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, said the outcome showed statewide resolve. “That’s the power of the low country and the power of all the state, showing that we are no one to be directed from someone in Washington, that we are the ones that were gonna control our destiny here,” she said.

But as party members celebrated, a dispute between gubernatorial candidates created tension inside the convention.

Gubernatorial candidate Mullins McLeod announced he would not share the stage with his fellow Democratic candidates during the event.

“I just wanted to go on the record and tell you why I was not gonna share the stage with three people whose platforms would violate will of the people in South Carolina,” McLeod said.

McLeod also accused fellow Democrat Jermaine Johnson of siding with Republicans. “Jermaine Johnson is getting ready to tell all these people how he is for them, but he and I both know that he has voted with the Republican establishment more than 90% of the time,” he said.

Johnson, a Democratic state representative for District 52, responded to McLeod’s allegations and his decision not to appear onstage with the other candidates.