Gamecocks Welcome Tigers to CLA Friday Night

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina (1-0) welcomes in-state rival Clemson (1-0) to Colonial Life Arena for a Friday night matchup in the annual Palmetto Series. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. (ET) with Dave Weinstein (pxp) and John Williams (analyst) on the call for the SEC Network+ broadcast.

It’s just the second time in 171 all-time meetings the teams will play in November. The only previous meeting this month was Nov. 17, 2013 at Clemson.

GAME INFORMATION

Matchup: South Carolina vs. Clemson (SC leads all-time series 91-80)

Time: Nov. 11 at 7 p.m.

Venue: Colonial Life Arena

Tickets: click here 

TV: SEC Network+

Radio: 107.5 The Game (SiriusXM 156 or 204/SXM APP 967)

Live Stats: StatBroadcast

TIPOFF NOTABLES

> A New Chapter of Gamecock Men’s Basketball is underway with first-year head coach Lamont Paris this season.

> Paris, who has been a part of nine NCAA Division I Tournaments and 17 twenty-win seasons as a college head and assistant coach, was named the University of South Carolina’s 33rd head coach by Director of Athletics Ray Tanner on Thursday, March 24, 2022.

> This new-look Gamecock squad features eight new players (four transfers and four freshman) headlined by standout freshman forward Gregory “GG” Jackson II, the highest rated recruit in program history (recruit rankings started in early 2000s). He joined former Carolina standout PJ Dozier (2015-17) as the only five-star signees in program history.

> The team opened the season with an 80-77 victory over SC State on Tuesday night led by the oldest player on the team, graduate transfer Hayden Brown, and the youngest player on the team, freshman Gregory “GG” Jackson II ; Brown had 21 to lead all scorers and Jackson had 18 points and a game-high 10 rebounds for his first career double-double ; sophomore Jacobi Wright had a career-high 14 points after going 3-for-5 behind the arc in the first victory of the Lamont Paris era

> Carolina began the season with an 80-41 exhibition win over Mars Hill on Nov. 2 at CLA. Meechie Johnson led all scorers in the contest with 16 points. Chico Carter Jr. (13), GG Jackson (11) and Zachary Davis (10) all scored in double figures for Carolina. Benjamin-Bosmans Verdonk led the team with 12 rebounds. The Gamecock defense limited the Lions to just 27.9 percent shooting (17-for-61) and 6.3 percent (1-for-16) shooting from behind the arc. Carolina outscored Mars Hill 44-20 in the second half.

> The Lions were led by first-year head coach Larry Davis, a former Gamecock great (1995-97) and one of the stars on the 1997 SEC Championship squad. His two-year scoring mark of 1,068 points still remains the second most points scored by any two-year player in program history. Davis originally attended North Carolina before transferring to South Carolina and head coach Eddie Fogler.

ORDER ON THE COURT

> The Honorable L. Casey Manning enters his 30th season as an analyst for men’s basketball games on the Gamecock Radio Network. He joined the broadcast team for the 1993-94 season and worked alongside legendary South Carolina play-by-play man Bob Fulton. Manning has worked alongside current play-by-play man Derek Scott since 2016-17. The Gamecocks advanced to the school’s first ever Final Four their first year working together. Manning, a Dillon, S.C. native, played for the Gamecocks from 1970-73 and made history as the first African-American scholarship player in program history. He graduated from the South Carolina School of Law in 1977 and has served as Circuit Court Judge for the Fifth Judicial Court since 1994. Manning will retire on Dec. 31 this year.

> He joins Dave Kellum (33rd season as Ole Miss pxp) as the only members of the 30-year club on radio broadcast in the SEC.  

PRESEASON NUGGETS

> GG Jackson was one of 20 players in the country to be named to the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award Watch List on Oct. 27, 2022. He joined former Gamecock Chris Silva (2015-19) as the only Carolina players on the watch list in the nine-year history of the award.

BY THE NUMBERS

6 & 7 – Gregory “GG” Jackson II, a Columbia native, steps on campus ranked No. 6 in the final 247Sports and No. 7 in the final On3 player rankings for the 2022 class after reclassifying from 2023 over the summer.

18 & 10 – Jackson got his career going in emphatic fashion with 18 points and 10 rebounds in his debut as a Gamecock, an 80-77 win over SC State (Nov. 8) in the opener at CLA.

1,402 – Graduate transfer Hayden Brown scored 1,402 career points for The Citadel over five seasons, which is the seventh-most in program history.

2 – Brown is one of two players in The Citadel’s history to score 1,400 points and collect 700 rebounds in his career. A 6-5, 234-pound forward, he averaged 18.8 points and 9.5 rebounds per game in 2021-22.

.691 – New head coach Lamont Paris spent the past five seasons as head coach at Chattanooga. He led the team to a 65-29 (.691 win percentage) record the last three seasons and a berth in the 2022 NCAA Tournament after winning the SoCon Tournament Championship.

12 – Paris was an assistant for 17 seasons prior to becoming a head coach in 2017-18. He was a part of 12 NCAA Tournament appearances as an assistant (NCAA Division I and II), including a pair of Final Fours at Wisconsin in 2014 and 2015.

17 – In 22 seasons as a head or assistant coach in college, Paris has been a part of 17 teams that have won 20-or-more games in a season.

8 – Carolina’s roster features eight new players, including four transfers: Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk (Illinois), Hayden Brown (The Citadel), Ebrima Dibba (Coastal Carolina) and Meechie Johnson (Ohio State).

UP NEXT

South Carolina gets a quick break from games before heading to the coast to play in the 2022 Shriners Children’s Hospital Charleston Classic. The Gamecocks will face Colorado State in the team’s opening contest on Thursday (Nov. 17) at 5 p.m. (ET) on ESPNU. Jay Alter (pxp) and Debbie Antonelli (analyst) will be on the call for TV.

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