Marquette and South Carolina will feature contrast of styles
GREENVILLE, S.C. — One of the best aspects of the NCAA Tournament is it creates intriguing matchups.
Sometimes those are between geographically proximate teams that rarely play one another, like Florida State facing Florida Gulf Coast. Sometimes teams that have never met before get their first chance, like Iowa State vs. Nevada at approx. 8:57 p.m. Thursday at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
And sometimes, the matchups that throw opposite skills at one another are the most interesting.
That is the case for Marquette's first-round game against South Carolina at Bon Secours Wellness Arena. Friday's game, which will tip at approximately 8:50 p.m., will pit the Golden Eagles' offense — an explosive unit with the best three-point shooting percentage (43.0%) in the nation — against the Gamecocks' aggressive, lockdown defense, which is among the best at creating turnovers and keeping three-point shooters in check.
"They're one of the best defensive teams in the country, they really get out and pressure and try to turn you over, they make passes hard (and) they play incredibly hard," Marquette head coach Steve Wojciechowski said.
The statistics underscoring South Carolina's defensive prowess are staggering. The Gamecocks have the second-best turnover rate (24.5%) among the teams in the NCAA Tournament, meaning opponents commit turnovers on nearly 1 of 4 possessions. Many of those come by way of steals, with South Carolina ranking 27th in the nation with an average of 7.8 steals per game.
In 32 games this season, the Gamecocks have forced 17 or more turnovers 16 times, compiling a 13-3 record in those contests. Conversely, Marquette, which had the third-best turnover percentage among Big East teams, committed as many as 17 turnovers just once — in its 86-72 loss at St. John's.
Often in the rare occasions where Marquette ran into trouble with turnovers, Wojciechowski elected to put the ball in the hands of his two ball-handlers who have been least prone to commit turnovers — graduate transfer Katin Reinhardt and redshirt junior Andrew Rowsey. That will likely be the case again on Friday.
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Rowsey has already proven himself against South Carolina, scoring 30 points and committing just two turnovers in 31 minutes against the Gamecocks in 2014 during his sophomore year at UNC-Asheville.
“It’d be even more special if he could do it twice is what I told him," Wojciechowski said with a laugh when asked about Rowsey.
“With their defense, they put you in a lot of pressure situations and your ability to handle the ball under pressure and still make good decisions is paramount. I think Andrew and Katin have been reliable in that respect and those two guys will have to continue to do that in order for us to have a chance.”
Outside of forcing turnovers, South Carolina's other calling card on defense has been severely limiting three-point shooting. During the regular season, teams shot just 29.6% against the Gamecocks, the fifth-lowest mark in the country. In its best games, South Carolina held Florida to 0 of 17 on three-pointers, Missouri to 1 of 17 and Michigan to 2 of 26.
“The first thing is they play really hard and they have outstanding individual defenders, so when you have guys who can really guard the ball and pressure the ball without needing a ton of help guys are able to be closer to their men," Wojciechowski said. "Really if you look at all their guys their team defense is outstanding, but one of the reasons it’s outstanding is because individually guys don’t often put their team in help situations because they’ve gotten beaten off the dribble. The windows for drive and kick opportunities and open shots, you just don’t get them much against South Carolina.”
Of course, South Carolina hasn't seen a team that can shoot like Marquette can. The best three-point shooting team the Gamecocks faced this season was Syracuse (38.2%, 42nd in the country) and the Orange finished 6 of 15 (40%) from beyond the arc in South Carolina's 64-50 win at Brooklyn's Barclays Center.
Marquette, though it has struggled against athletic defenses, has faced four Big East defenses ranked in the top 40 in KenPom.com's adjusted defensive efficiency ratings during the regular season, going 4-4 in those games. One of those wins was against Villanova, which was ranked 11th in adjusted defensive efficiency, just six spots behind South Carolina.
"Villanova's one of the best defensive teams in the country, too, so we know what we have to do to go up against those teams and how hard we have to work," senior center Luke Fischer said. "We're going to need a whole team effort; we're going to need everyone to be all in and to be locked in and if we do that I think we'll be very successful."
One thing that Marquette may be able to take advantage of is the Gamecocks' proclivity for fouling. The Golden Eagles are the eighth-best free-throw shooting in the country (77.9%) despite the fact that they rarely get to the line. South Carolina might put them there a lot, though, as the Gamecocks allow more free throws per field-goal attempt than any team in the tournament.
While Marquette is robust on offense and South Carolina is stifling on defense, both teams are pedestrian or worse with the roles reversed. The Golden Eagles have struggled to consistently stop teams all season regardless of what defense they use and the Gamecocks, at least according to their effective field-goal percentage (46.7%), are the worst-shooting team in the NCAA Tournament field. South Carolina relies heavily on 6-foot-5 senior guard and SEC player of the year Sindarius Thornwell, who leads the Gamecocks with 21.0 points per game and aggressively looks to get to the free-throw line, where he ranks 14th in the country with 7.4 fouls drawn per 40 minutes.
The battle when Marquette is on defense may play a large role in deciding Friday's game, but it will undoubtedly be the undercard to the competition at the other end of the court.
"You get into March and you've got to do what you do well," Reinhardt said. "We've got to go out there and play with an edge and stick to the script of who we are. ... We're going to do that, Wojo's going to have us ready and I think all the guys are on the same page in terms of getting ready to work and do that at a high level."