Tulin's Treasures: South Carolina Throttles Texas, LSU Set to Host Vanderbilt
Weekend aftermath and a preview for LSU’s next test in kick off the week in Tulin’s Treasures
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Wrapping up Sunday’s top 25 action
South Carolina says “welcome to the SEC” in statement win over Texas
The top two teams in Sunday’s NET (with Texas on top) and HHS rating (with South Carolina on top) met in Columbia, and the Gamecocks left no doubt they’re still the sport’s gold standard with a 67-50 win that was more dominant than the final margin indicates as they posted a higher field-goal percentage (51%) than Texas’ point total.
Texas missed 18 of its first 21 shots while opening with its lowest-scoring quarter of the season, faced its largest halftime deficit since the 2021 Elite Eight (against South Carolina) and trailed by over 20 points before cutting the margin into the teens in the final minutes.
The Longhorns entered as the D-I leaders in offensive rating (and still rank second), but South Carolina made them look worse than the worst offense in D-I. That’s neither hyperbole nor opinion — UT scored approximately 65.8 points per 100 possessions Sunday, lower than the offensive rating of all 362 D-I teams this season.
No one on either team scored more than 11 points, but SC had a trio of double-digit scorers with both Te-Hina Paopao and Chloe Kitts scoring 11 and Joyce Edwards adding 10. Edwards has more double-digit outings in her last seven games (six) than she did in her first 10 games as a Gamecock (five).
As noted in Friday’s preview, neither team was necessarily well equipped to exploit the other’s most obvious deficiencies: Texas’ tendency to send opponents to the line and South Carolina’s trouble defending the perimeter. At least in the first half when the game was all but decided, the Gamecocks did a fantastic job of attacking Texas’ weakness while the Longhorns made no attempt to do the same to SC.
South Carolina is in the bottom third in D-I with a free-throw rate just under 15% for the season, but it went to the line 10 times in the first half Sunday. In addition to seven free points, a tangible impact of the frequent trips to the line was sending UT’s Kyla Oldacre to the bench with two fouls for the entire second quarter after she’d already corralled eight offensive boards. SC was +5 on the boards in the second quarter after being -8 in the first.
Texas came into the weekend with the second-lowest 3-point rate in D-I and stayed true to form with zero attempts from deep in the first half. Texas wasn’t helped by quite a few misses on good looks by players up and down the roster, in particular Madison Booker’s 3-for-19 effort, but it also wasn’t helped by South Carolina not even having to think about defending the perimeter.
Looking ahead, South Carolina moves forward with its toughest stretch of the regular season while Texas looks to take out its frustration on one of four opponents left on the schedule outside the top 50 in HHS rating.
The Gamecocks head to Tuscaloosa, where if the transitive property applied it would say SC is 61 points better than the Crimson Tide, which lost by 44 points to Texas last week. Bama bounced back with a six-point win at Ole Miss but hasn’t beaten a team in the top 20 in HHS rating. South Carolina, playing its second of five straight opponents in the HHS top 20, has four such wins already.
Texas will look to rebound against Auburn and most likely will have its way with the Tigers (No. 69 in HHS rating), but the loss to SC casts some doubt on UT’s ability to score against the nation’s best. The ‘Horns have hit just 32.5% from the field in their losses to SC and Notre Dame while finishing both games under 40% — they’ve made at least 47% in every other game this season, but none came against an opponent higher than West Virginia (No. 14) in HHS rating.
Other notable top 25 results
In other Sunday action…
Yet another injury hit Notre Dame as Hannah Hidalgo missed the first game of her Fighting Irish career in Sunday’s win at Clemson, though she’s expected back on the floor perhaps as soon as Thursday against Georgia Tech. ND held the lead for the final 35:22 at Clemson anyway, let by 23 points and 11 rebounds from Liatu King while Olivia Miles added 19 points and nine assists.
Penn State’s trip to face USC and UCLA went on as scheduled while Northwestern’s was postponed amidst the wildfires ravaging the Los Angeles area. The Trojans won their 12th straight Sunday night by a 95-73 margin while the unbeaten crosstown rival Bruins sat idle. JuJu Watkins scored 35 points, her second-most in a game this season, while Kiki Iriafen added 28 for the Trojans, who will reverse roles with UCLA Wednesday when the Bruins take on the Nittany Lions and USC was scheduled to face Northwestern.
Oklahoma avoided a 1-3 start to SEC play with a 15-point win over Texas A&M, though it shot just 39.4% from the field in the process. Raegan Beers led the way with 16 points and shared the team-high with nine attempts from the field (something you know warmed my heart if you read Friday’s edition of Tulin’s Treasures).
Tennessee got back to its winning ways after back-to-back heartbreakers against Oklahoma and LSU, throttling Arkansas 93-63 Sunday in Fayetteville behind 20 points from Talaysia Cooper. The Lady Vols made 12 shots from beyond the arc as a team, improving to 6-0 when they do so (they made 10 and 11 in last week’s losses), and will head home to face Mississippi State Thursday with a brutal six-game stretch looming beyond that.
Georgia Tech’s program-best start gave way to a second straight loss Sunday at Louisville, though it certainly comes with the caveat that the Yellow Jackets haven’t had top scoring freshman Dani Carnegie since the third quarter of the first loss. Perhaps more notable than Georgia Tech’s second loss, in the big picture, was Louisville’s sixth straight win. The Cardinals haven’t lost since falling to 6-5 in a rout against NC State last month, with their own top scoring freshman Tajianna Roberts averaging 16.7 points per game during the streak.
The WNBA trade rumor mill has had plenty of grist lately thanks to soon-to-be former Dallas Wings star Satou Sabally announcing she’s played her last game for the franchise and Seattle Storm star Jewell Loyd expressing a desire to move this offseason (both are also set to begin Unrivaled play in Miami in a few days). As of the weekend, the window is officially open to designate core players and extend qualifying offers. The Wings are expected to core Sabally in order to receive trade compensation when she leaves, though there hasn’t been a report that Dallas has done so yet. The most notable transactions over the weekend were a core designation for Kelsey Plum by the Las Vegas Aces, and reportedly the same for Breanna Stewart by the reigning champion New York Liberty.
LSU hosts Vanderbilt in Monday’s marquee matchup
The Tigers, who survived their toughest test by a bucket in Thursday’s thriller at Tennessee, now return home to face their third opponent in the top 20 in HHS rating. Vanderbilt hasn’t looked the part while losing the last two games by a combined 46 points.
The unbeaten Tigers have a chance to add just their third Quad 1 win, with the only one prior to last week coming in November over NC State. Including tonight, LSU’s remaining schedule currently has eight Quad 1 games, three Quad 2 games and one game each in Quads 3 and 4.
Vandy’s facing its first opponent this season ranked higher than No. 21 in HHS rating (Michigan State) and heads into Baton Rouge with an 0-3 mark in both Quad 1 games and against teams ranked higher than No. 61 (Arizona). Those losses have come by an average margin of 18 including an 18-point home loss to Kentucky and a 28-point loss at Ole Miss last week. Like LSU, Vandy’s remaining schedule is laden with games in the upper quads, with seven of its final 13 games in Quad 1 and four more in Quad 2.
Both teams have been elite at the offensive end of the floor, ranking in the top 10 in D-I in offensive rating, points per game and offensive rebounding rate. LSU’s been the better team defensively, and in particular makes it tougher on opponents to score, while the Commodores’ defensive rating is built on forcing turnovers without fouling.
A testament to their elite offensive capabilities: Vandy is the only team in D-I with multiple players averaging 20 ppg (Khamil Pierre and Mikayla Blakes), while LSU is one of just five with three players averaging 15 ppg (Aneesah Morrow, Flau’Jae Johnson and Mikaylah Williams).
LSU is 10th in HHS defensive rating, ranking in the top 100 in D-I in three of Dean Oliver’s Four Factors of Basketball Success, coming in 74th in defensive rebounding rate (72.0%), 96th in opponents’ free-throw rate (15.2%) and 12th in opponents’ effective field-goal percentage (39.7%). The only factor in which LSU isn’t in the top 100 is turnover rate, where the Tigers are in the middle of the pack with a 20.4% rate (153rd in D-I).
Vandy is 23rd in HHS defensive rating despite sitting right in the middle of the pack in two of the Four Factors: opponent effective field-goal percentage (45.7%, 166th) and defensive rebounding rate (68.8%, 176th). The Commodores rank in the top 50 in the other two factors, turnover rate (26.5%, 14th) and free-throw rate (13.6%, 41st), presenting the rare combination of a team that manages to be elite at forcing turnovers while also being near that level at avoiding the whistle.
LSU has won eight straight meetings with Vandy dating back to Feb. 2017, most recently by 23 points last February in Nashville.
The Tigers’ last four wins over Vandy have come by at least 18 and a combined 85 points, and all eight wins during the current streak have come by at least six points.
LSU has won 11 straight home meetings with Vandy, the last loss coming all the way back in Feb. 2004 with Seimone Augustus on the floor for the Tigers.
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