South Carolina vs LSU 2/19/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The LSU Tigers and the South Carolina Gamecocks meet in college basketball action from the Colonial Life Arena on Saturday afternoon.

The LSU Tigers will look to build on a third straight win after an 84-65 win over Georgia in their last game. Tari Eason leads the Tigers in scoring with 16.8 PPG along with 7 RPG while Darius Days has 13.1 PPG with a team-high 7.9 RPG to lead LSU on the glass and Brandon Murray and has 10.3 PPG to round out the group of double-digit scorers for LSU so far this season. Xavier Pinson’s got 9.8 PPG and a team-high 4.3 APG to lead LSU in assists and Eric Gaines has 9.7 PPG with 3.3 APG as well this season. As a team, LSU is averaging 73 PPG on 44.2% shooting from the field, 32.7% from three and 70.9% from the foul line while allowing 61.3 PPG on 37.6% shooting from the field and 28.2% from three this season.

The South Carolina Gamecocks will look to build on back-to-back road wins after a 77-74 win over Ole Miss last time out. Erik Stevenson leads the Gamecocks with 11.3 PPG with 4.5 RPG and 2.6 APG while James Reese has 10.4 PPG as the only other double-digit scorer for South Carolina up to this point in the season. Jermaine Couisnard has 9.9 PPG with a team-high 2.9 APG and Devin Carter and Keyshawn Bryant each have 9+ PPG as well this season. As a team, South Carolina is averaging 71.6 PPG on 42.8% shooting from the field, 32.1% from three and 65.1% from the foul line while allowing 69.3 PPG on 41.1% shooting from the field and 32.4% from three this season.

LSU is 1-6 ATS in their last 7 games against a team with a winning record and 0-5 ATS in their last 5 Saturday games while the over is 6-1 in their last 7 games overall. South Carolina is 2-6 ATS in their last 8 games overall and 1-6 ATS in their last 7 games against a team with a winning recor while the over is 6-0 in their last 6 games against a team with a winning record.

I get the case to be made either way here, but LSU’s top-tier defense has fallen off a proverbial cliff in their last few games and South Carolina plays their best ball by far at home this season. If LSU was as good as a lot of people peg them to be, they’d be heavier favorites like this and it feels like the books are begging you to take LSU. Well keep begging. Give me South Carolina and the points and a bit on the ML as well.