Here is the statistical comparison between Kentucky and South Carolina.

A quick perusal of these stats will point you to a couple of conclusions.  The first is that South Carolina is a much better ballhandling team than Kentucky.  Turnovers have plagued the Cats all year long, but not the Gamecocks.  In fact, the Gamecocks lead the SEC in fewest giveaways, and are 5th in the entire nation in that statistic.  The Gamecocks have also been a good 2-point shooting team in conference, but not so great at the 3-pointer.

Kentucky, on the other hand, has superior 3-point shooting and overall defensive statistics.  The Cats even get more rebounds than the Gamecocks, although it will be interesting to see how that holds up with Patterson consigned to the pine for the remainder of the season.  The Gamecocks are one of the better free-throw shooting teams in the conference, and with Patterson on the bench, I expect our FT% to begin to slip somewhat, as we saw in the Tennessee game.

Overall, the Wildcats are slightly superior statistically to South Carolina.  Kentucky has played a much tougher schedule, and has been more successful in the second half of the season.  But the Gamecocks have some solid players, and every road game in the SEC is tough.  Come to think of it, though, the Wildcats have made every game tough lately, but they come out on the winning end more often than not.

I'll have a more in-depth look at the game in my adversary analysis.  For more on the South Carolina Gamecocks, you can take a visit to our SBNation brothers at Garnet and Black Attack.

Thanks again to Statsheet.com and Basketball State for the statistical data.