South Carolina’s men’s basketball team will travel to Austin to play Texas on Tuesday night at the Moody Center. This marks the Gamecocks’ first visit to Austin since 1982 and is only the fourth meeting between the two programs.
The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. (ET) tipoff and will be broadcast on SEC Network, with Roy Philpott handling play-by-play duties and Daymeon Fishback as analyst.
South Carolina, currently holding an 11-11 overall record and 2-7 in SEC play, aims to end a three-game losing streak in conference action. In their most recent game, they lost in overtime at home against LSU. Meechie Johnson led South Carolina with 21 points, six assists, and five rebounds during that contest. Other players reaching double figures included Kobe Knox (15), Eli Ellis (14), Elijah Strong (12), and Mike Sharavjamts (11). Knox reached his 1,000th career point milestone late in regulation.
Johnson has been averaging 18 points, 5.1 assists, three rebounds, and 1.4 steals per game across nine SEC contests this season. He recently had a streak of 29 consecutive made free throws before missing one early in the second half against LSU. Johnson is shooting 85.7% from the foul line in SEC games so far this year. He is among four SEC players who rank in both the top-15 for scoring and top-five for assists per game during league play.
As a team, South Carolina leads the SEC—and ranks No. 11 nationally—in free throw percentage at 78.5%. The Gamecocks are also among the league’s best in three-point defense (30.9%) and fewest turnovers per game (10.1).
Texas enters the matchup with a record of 13-9 overall and 4-5 in conference play under first-year head coach Sean Miller, who recently earned his 500th career win as a Division I head coach over his 21 seasons. Dailyn Swain leads Texas statistically with averages of 17.5 points, 7.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 1.8 steals per game; his scoring average rises to over 21 points per contest during SEC action.
Other key contributors for Texas include Matas Vokietaitis (14.9 ppg), Tramon Mark (12.9 ppg), and Jordan Pope (12.9 ppg). Texas has split its last four games but secured an impressive win over Georgia at home on January 24 and defeated Oklahoma on Saturday after overcoming a double-digit deficit.
Texas averages more than 85 points per game—ranking No.28 nationally—and is among national leaders in both free throws made and attempted per contest while maintaining high field goal efficiency but ranking low nationally in fouls committed per game.
Last season’s meeting saw South Carolina make 34 free throws en route to an 84-69 victory over Texas at Colonial Life Arena; Collin Murray-Boyles scored a double-double with 22 points and ten rebounds.
According to ESPN’s Basketball Power Index for the current season, South Carolina faces one of the toughest remaining schedules nationwide—ranked ninth—with most SEC teams featuring prominently among those with challenging slates.
Head coach Lamont Paris has guided South Carolina to notable records when achieving certain statistical benchmarks: The team is undefeated when making at least thirty field goals or when bench scoring exceeds forty points this season; they have strong records when holding opponents below seventy points or forty percent shooting from the floor; they also perform well when distributing twenty or more assists or shooting fifty percent or better from behind the arc.
Individually, several Gamecock starters have surpassed significant milestones this year: Stute reached his thousandth career point earlier this season; Johnson joined South Carolina’s thousand-point club against The Citadel; Knox achieved his own thousandth point versus LSU on Saturday—making three active starters members of that group.
Following Tuesday’s road matchup against Texas, South Carolina will return home to face Missouri on Saturday afternoon.
