Breaking down No. 6 South Carolina vs. No. 11 Oregon

No. 6 South Carolina vs. No. 11 Oregon

4 p.m. Thursday, PPG Paints Arena

TV: TNT

Winner plays: Winner of 3-Creighton (23-9)/14-Akron (24-10) on Saturday in second round

Series history: 1st all-time meeting

South Carolina (26-7)

Coach: Lamont Paris (2nd season)

How they got here: South Carolina earned an at-large bid out of the SEC.

Last NCAA appearance: 2017, lost to Gonzaga in the Final Four

Leading scorer: Meechie Johnson, jr., G, 13.8 ppg

Probable starting lineup

No., Player, Ht., Pos., Cl., PPG

2, B.J. Mack, 6-8, F, gr., 13.6

5, Meechie Johnson, 6-2, G, jr., 13.8

12, Zachary Davis, 6-6, jr., G, 5.7

30, Collin-Murray Boyles, 6-7, fr., F, 10.6

55, Ta’Lon Cooper, 6-4, gr., G, 9.8

Notable: South Carolina is making its 10th NCAA Tournament appearance and is 8-10 all time in tournament games. The Gamecocks made Sweet 16 trips in 1972, ’73 and 2017. … South Carolina finished 13-5 in the SEC, good for a tie for second place, and lost to Auburn in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals. … The team’s 25 regular-season wins were the most in program history. The Gamecocks’ 15-win turnaround is also the most in program history. … South Carolina is 21-0 this season when scoring 70 or more points. … Cooper is 10th in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio with 137 assists against 40 turnovers. He was named second-team All-SEC, along with Johnson. Cooper averages 9.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists. Johnson has averaged 14.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists. Murray-Boyles was named to the All-SEC Freshman Team after averaging 10.3 points and 5.7 rebounds. … Paris, who was named the SEC coach of the year, has a 37-28 record at South Carolina and a 124-100 mark overall. Paris was part of a Wisconsin coaching staff that made seven straight NCAA Tournament appearances.

Quotable: “Coach Paris, he’s a big jokester. That’s why we call him the People’s Coach because, you know, he relates a lot to a lot of people. So just him having that capability to relate to a lot of people and show a different side that you don’t really see probably from a lot of coaches just shows the great person that he is.”

— South Carolina forward B.J. Mack on coach Lamont Paris

Oregon (23-11)

Coach: Dana Altman (14th season)

How they got here: Oregon earned an automatic bid after winning the Pac-12 Tournament.

Last NCAA appearance: 2021, lost to USC in Sweet 16

Leading scorer: N’Faly Dante, sr., C, 16.1 ppg

Probable starting lineup

No., Player, Ht., Pos., Cl., PPG

1, N’Faly Dante, 6-11, C, sr., 16.2

3, Jackson Shelstad, 6-0, G, fr., 13.1

5, Jermaine Couisnard, 6-4, G, r-sr., 15.4

10, Kwame Evans Jr., 6-9, F, fr., 7.5

22, Jadrian Tracey, 6-5, G, r-jr., 7.7

Notable: Oregon is playing in the NCAA Tournament for the 18th time and eighth under Altman. The Ducks are 26-16 all-time. Altman has led Oregon to the Sweet 16 five times, including the Final Four in 2017. … Oregon won the Pac-12 Tournament for the sixth time Saturday after beating Colorado, 75-68. … Couisnard was named to the Pac-12 all-tournament team after scoring in double-digits in three straight games. He had 20 points, seven assists and six rebounds against Arizona. Shelstad also was picked to the all-tournament team after he had 21 points against Arizona and had 17 in the title game. … Altman has a 344-151 record in 14 years at Oregon and is 754-394 in his 35-year career. He is the 24th coach in Division I history to reach 750 wins.

Quotable: “It was amazing for me, just seeing how far the (South Carolina) program came and how the coach has done a good job with them guys over there. It was something that we all wanted when we all was there. So, it was like we all got what we wanted.”

—Oregon guard Jermaine Couisnard, who played at South Carolina from 2019-22