Saturday night's basketball game between South Carolina and Tennessee inside Thompson-Boling Arena will pair its share of battle wounds and broken hearts.
The No. 11 Volunteers enter the matchup (6 on SEC Network) with a 20-8 overall record and 9-6 Southeastern Conference mark but stuck in a 2-5 slide, having suffered recent buzzer-beater losses in consecutive games against Vanderbilt and Missouri. Yet no SEC team this winter may have been dealt a more devastating loss than the Gamecocks of first-year coach Lamont Paris, who were 17.5-point underdogs Wednesday night against visiting Alabama and took the top projected overall top seed in next month's NCAA tournament into overtime before losing 78-76.
"That was a hard one to go into the locker room and try to figure out something clever to tell these guys to make them feel better about what just happened," Paris said in a news conference after the defeat that dropped his team to 10-18 overall and 3-12 in SEC play, "but that's part of this whole thing. Not only did they give great effort, but they played well and executed a defensive scouting report incredibly well.
"I wanted it really bad for these guys."
Paris, who guided the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to a 27-8 record last season and a trip to the NCAA tournament, watched his Gamecocks build a five-point lead with three minutes left, and they were up 68-66 until Brandon Miller's layup with four seconds remaining sent the game into overtime. Miller struck again in the extra period, as his layup with 0.9 second left completed a 41-point performance for the freshman forward and likely NBA lottery pick.
South Carolina's showing against Alabama coupled with last Saturday's 82-73 win at LSU reflects a team that hardly resembles the squad that Tennessee blasted 85-42 in Columbia on Jan. 7.
"I think they've done a terrific job of getting better each and every game," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Friday afternoon. "They've settled in with the players that they have. We saw what they did the other night. They had the No. 2 team in the country on the ropes with a chance to win it, and I think that speaks volumes about their players and their coaching staff.
"They haven't won certainly as many games as we all want to win, but they fought, and they've fought all year long."
South Carolina was the preseason pick to finish last among the SEC's 14 teams, and the youthful Gamecocks have displayed some woeful showings, but they also struck for memorable victories over rival Clemson (60-58 in November) and traditional league kingpin Kentucky (71-68 last month). Their 0-3 overtime record in league games has prevented them from being more of a surprise story.
"We're doing all these things well and making all this improvement," Paris said, "and it's like, 'Says who? Says the scoreboard? Says the win-loss record?' It can be hard for these guys to see that, but obviously they're making a lot of progress.
"There is just a knot in my stomach for these guys."
Optimistic update
Barnes was asked Friday afternoon whether senior guard Josiah-Jordan James (ankle) and freshman forward Julian Phillips (hip flexor) would play against the Gamecocks and gave an optimistic reply. The two have missed Tennessee's past three games.
"Yeah, I think so," Barnes said, "and how much we don't know. I think that will be a game-time decision, but they've both been practicing with us."
Odds and ends
The Vols are 9-1 in their past 10 meetings with South Carolina and hold a 51-28 series advantage. ... Barnes on why former Hamilton Heights standout Uros Plavsic played just three minutes during Tuesday night's 68-63 loss at Texas A&M: "Every guy has a specific role he has to play, and we felt that Tobe (Awaka) was effective and that Olivier (Nkamhoua) had great presence." ... Tennessee is still No. 1 nationally in field-goal defense (35.9%) and 3-point defense (25.0%). ... Vols senior guard Santiago Vescovi has made 43.9% of his 3-point attempts (18-of-41) in his past five games.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.