South Carolina: post mortem

It will be important for the team - and the fanbase - not to overreact to this loss, and an almost certain loss on Tuesday night at Kentucky.  If South Carolina can scratch out a few more wins in conference, the fact that it was on the road will keep it from being a terrible loss.

Remember the discussion about who the team MVP is?  There's no more discussion.  It's Marcus Thornton.  This was the worst we've seen Georgia play since last year against Vanderbilt (at least).  For a team already thin due to injuries, the loss of Thornton is way too much to overcome:

• On paper this is going to look like a great win for South Carolina, but I'm not convinced they're particularly good.  On a night where Georgia was missing their leading scorer and rebounder and managed to shoot an unfathomable 22% from the field, the Gamecocks were only up 8 with 10 minutes to go.  It never felt like Georgia was going to make it a game, but had Gaines' 3-pointer dropped and cut it to 5, who knows?
• The 5-point possession right after that iced it, but I can't fault Mark Fox for getting himself rung up.  The officiating was...uneven, and I'm sure he was frustrated with his lack of options (and the play of those who were available).  Better to let it boil over in a game you're not going to win than in a more critical moment.
• Georgia needed one of the guards to play exceptionally well and they needed Yante Maten to eat up minutes (and shots) in the paint to have a chance without Thornton.  Neither of those things happened.
• The announcers kept trying to convince us that South Carolina was playing stifling defense, but Georgia defended itself pretty effectively tonight.  Without Thornton, there was no flow to the offense.  The ball rarely made it into the paint.  That meant the guards never had good looks from outside.  Most of the turnovers were just Georgia throwing the ball into traffic.
• Forte's lack of minutes was a little surprising.  Not that he would have made a difference in the result, but he certainly brings more to the table than Kessler or Iduwe right now.
• That's the worst offensive game we've seen from Kenny Gaines in a while.  Hopefully he can shake it off.
• Michael Carrera sure plays hard, but he's not all that talented.  Just a lot of desire.
• I have no idea why you'd let your child play for Frank Martin at this point.  No further comment on that.
• Georgia was actually decent on the boards against a good rebounding team.  If there was a bright spot, I suppose that was it.

Wipe it from the memory banks.  Go be competitive Tuesday night in Lexington, then come home ready to beat Tennessee.  Regardless of what happens in Rupp, this team is still alright.  Today showed just how razor thin the margin of error is, though.  There can't be any more injuries or setbacks, or things could start to spiral downward very quickly.